Tenafly Public Schools Explained

Tenafly Public Schools
Logo Alt:This is the logo for Tenafly Public School.
Superintendent:Michael Ben-David
Businessadmin:Victor Anaya
Address:500 Tenafly Road
Zipcode:07670
Country:United States
Coordinates:40.9293°N -73.966°W
Schools:6
Enrollment:3,582 (as of 2020–21)
Ratio:11.7:1
Free Text:I

The Tenafly Public Schools is a comprehensive community public school district that serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade from Tenafly, in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.[1]

As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of six schools, had an enrollment of 3,582 students and 305.2 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.7:1.[2]

The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "I", the second-highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.[3]

Students from Alpine attend Tenafly High School as part of a sending/receiving relationship.[4] [5]

Awards and recognition

Tenafly High School was recognized with the Blue Ribbon School Award, awarded by the United States Department of Education at a special assembly to the Tenafly High School Community on September 20, 2005. Tenafly was the only high school in New Jersey and one of 38 public high schools in the U.S. to be recognized with the award that year.[6]

The district's high school was the 17th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology, and had been ranked 3rd in the state of 328 schools in 2012.[7] Tenafly High School was the 3rd-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 322 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2010 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 3rd in 2008 out of 316 schools.[8] The high school was the 2nd ranked public high school in the state out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2006 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools.[9]

The Tenafly Middle School 8th grade string orchestra, conducted by Erika Boras Tesi, won first place in the American String Teachers Association's National Orchestra Festival in 2006, earning the title of number one public middle school orchestra in the United States.[10]

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics)[11] are:[12] [13]

Middle school
High school

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:[26]

Board of education

The district's board of education is comprised of nine members who set policy and oversee the fiscal and educational operation of the district through its administration. As a Type II school district, the board's trustees are elected directly by voters to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with three seats up for election each year held (since 2012) as part of the November general election. The board appoints a superintendent to oversee the district's day-to-day operations and a business administrator to supervise the business functions of the district.[29] [30] [31] [32]

Adolf Hitler assignment controversy

In April 2021, a fifth-grade teacher at Maugham Elementary School instructed her 5th grade students to do a presentation on famous people in the first person.[33] After a recently immigrated Asian student asked to choose Anne Frank as a topic for her paper in order to learn more about her Jewish classmates, another student asked to choose Adolf Hitler as a topic. After consulting with her rabbi and considering the student's intent, the teacher decided to allow the student to proceed. The student dressed up as Hitler and presented an essay that she had written from the perspective of the Nazi leader touting his "accomplishments" as a part of a class assignment.[34] [35] [36] [37] [38] The student wrote a biography of Hitler that glorified the Nazi leader, stated that Hitler's "greatest accomplishment was uniting a great mass of German and Austrian people" in his support, framed the Holocaust in a positive light, and added that Hitler was "pretty great".[35] [39] [40] Subsequent to the presentation, the student reiterated her intention to the class and a substantive discussion ensued. The student's essay was displayed publicly within the school's hallway during the month of April.[33] [35] [41] [42] [43] In May 2021, the details of the school assignment became known to the public, leading to outrage in the community, which has a substantial Jewish population.[41] [44] The subsequent social media maelstrom misconstrued the intentions of the student and teacher, resulting in harassment and the family's eventual departure from the district. After initially defending the teacher and the school's actions and asserting that "it is unfair to judge any student or teacher in this matter",[45] [46] [47] the districts' board of education suspended the teacher and the principal of the school with pay in June 2021 and opened an investigation into the incident.[48] [39] Following the investigation, the teacher resigned and the principal was reinstated in July 2021.[49] [50]

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/cms/lib/NJ02210482/Centricity/domain/478/0000/0110.pdf Tenafly Board of Education District Policy 0110 - Identification
  2. https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=2&details=1&ID2=3416110&DistrictID=3416110 District information for Tenafly Public School District
  3. http://www.state.nj.us/education/finance/rda/dfg.shtml NJ Department of Education District Factor Groups (DFG) for School Districts
  4. https://rc.doe.state.nj.us/1516/03/0080/000.html Alpine School District 2016 Report Card Narrative
  5. Alvarado, Monsy. "Alpine to keep sending students to Tenafly", The Record, April 4, 2003, backed up by the Internet Archive as of May 16, 2011. Accessed November 20, 2017. "Alpine - The borough's high school students will continue to attend Tenafly High School under a new contract approved by the Board of Education this week."
  6. http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/2005/2005-schools.html#nj Schools selected as No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools in 2005
  7. Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014.
  8. Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed May 1, 2011.
  9. http://www.njmonthly.com/topschools/hslist.lasso Top Public High Schools in New Jersey
  10. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/000313130605600216 "ASTA National Conference, 2006"
  11. https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_list.asp?Search=1&DistrictID=3416110 School Data for the Tenafly Public Schools
  12. https://rc.doe.state.nj.us/selectreport/2022-2023/03/5160 School Performance Reports for the Tenafly Public School District
  13. https://homeroom6.doe.state.nj.us/directory/school/districtid/5160 New Jersey School Directory for the Tenafly Public Schools
  14. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/Domain/10 Malcolm S. Mackay Elementary School
  15. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/domain/630 Principal
  16. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/Domain/11 Ralph S. Maugham Elementary School
  17. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/domain/651 Principal
  18. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/Domain/12 J. Spencer Smith Elementary School
  19. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/domain/2764 Principal
  20. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/Domain/13 Walter Stillman Elementary School
  21. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/domain/2801 Principal
  22. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/Domain/9 Tenafly Middle School
  23. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/domain/626 Principal
  24. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/Domain/8 Tenafly High School
  25. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/domain/55 Principal
  26. https://homeroom6.doe.state.nj.us/directory/district/county/bergen New Jersey School Directory for Bergen County
  27. http://tenaflyschools.org/domain/45 Superintendent's Page
  28. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/Page/7510 Office of the Business Administrator
  29. https://www.nj.gov/education/finance/fp/dwb/DistrictByTypeList2018.pdf New Jersey Boards of Education by District Election Types - 2018 School Election
  30. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/domain/207 About the BOE
  31. https://www.tenaflyschools.org/Page/464 Board Members
  32. https://www.nj.gov/education/finance/fp/acfr/search/21/5160.pdf#page=47 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the Tenafly Public Schools
  33. DeMarco Jerry. "Tenafly 5th Grader Dresses As Hitler For Class Project: ‘Pretty Great Wasn’t I?'", Englewood Daily Voice, May 31, 2021. Accessed July 24, 2024. "Students selected their individual figures from history as part of a 'character development' presentation to the class, the parents said.... Writing in the first person, the student cited 'accomplishments' by the mass-murdering Nazi Party tyrant."
  34. News: Eyewitness News. 4 June 2021. Teacher, principal on leave after student's project on Hitler in New Jersey town. ABC 7.
  35. News: Beachum. Lateshia. 1 June 2021. Fifth-grader dresses as Hitler, lauds dictator's 'accomplishments.' A N.J. district is investigating.. The Washington Post.
  36. News: 3 June 2021. New Jersey, bambina di 9 anni si traveste da Hitler per un compito. Scoppia la polemica: "È antisemitismo". Il Mattino.
  37. News: 3 June 2021. Daily Kickoff. Jewish Insider.
  38. News: Freda. Gerry. 4 June 2021. Entra in classe "travestita da Hitler". Bufera in una scuola elementare. Il Giornale.
  39. News: Alexander. Dan. 1 June 2021. Tenafly, NJ 5th grade project on Hitler as 'great' being probed. NJ101.5.
  40. News: Katzban. Nicholas. 2 June 2021. Jewish groups call on community to quell anger toward Tenafly student over Hitler essay. NorthJersey.com.
  41. News: 1 June 2021. NJ Elementary Student's Assignment Appearing to Glorify Hitler Sparks Outrage. NBC New York.
  42. News: Ford. James. Cook. Lauren. 1 June 2021. 'I was pretty great, wasn't I': NJ student's Hitler presentation under investigation, school district says. PIX 11.
  43. News: 1 June 2021. 'I Was Pretty Great, Wasn't I?': Outrage Over Display of Flattering Hitler Bio at New Jersey Elementary School. The Algemeiner.
  44. News: Sheldon. Chris. 2 June 2020. School reviewing 5th grade student's first-person Hitler essay. NJ.com.
  45. News: Sheldon. Chris. 4 June 2021. Teacher who assigned first-person Hitler essay placed on leave, superintendent says. NJ.com.
  46. News: Galluccio. Bill. 3 June 2021. New Jersey School Board Defends 5th Grade Teacher Over Hitler Assignment. NewsRadio WFLA.
  47. News: Madani. Doha. 2 June 2021. New Jersey school board defends 5th grade student and teacher over Hitler assignment. NBC News.
  48. News: Katzban. Nicholas. 4 June 2021. New Jersey teacher, principal on paid leave after student's report on Hitler's 'accomplishments'. USA Today. Gannett. NorthJersey.com.
  49. https://apnews.com/article/education-new-jersey-ff3daf89cf6ba5b949c96cf89398d752 "New Jersey teacher resigns after student’s Hitler assignment"
  50. Noda, Stephanie. "Principal returns, teacher resigns in Tenafly after Hitler assignment", The Record, July 13, 2021. Accessed July 24, 2024. "The decision was announced at Monday night’s Board of Education meeting, where the board voted to approve Superintendent Shauna DeMarco's recommendations to accept the teacher’s resignation after a leave of absence ends in January and allow the return of Principal Jennifer Ferrara to Maugham Elementary School."

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