Pleasantville Public Schools

Pleasantville Public Schools
900 West Leeds Avenue
Pleasantville, NJ 08232
District information
Grades K-12
Superintendent Dr. Leonard Fitts (interim)
Business administrator Dennis Mulvihill
Schools 7
Affiliation(s) Former Abbott district
Students and staff
Enrollment 3,223 (as of 2011-12)[1]
Faculty 378.0 FTEs
Student-teacher ratio 8.53:1
Other information
District Factor Group A
Website www.pps-nj.us/pps/
Ind. Per pupil District
spending 		Rank
(*) 		K-12
average		 %± vs.
average
1ATotal Spending$20,52681$18,8918.7%
1Budgetary Cost17,8289814,78320.6%
2Classroom Instruction10,399958,76318.7%
6Support Services2,728822,39214.0%
8Administrative Cost1,834981,48523.5%
10Operations & Maintenance2,383911,78333.7%
13Extracurricular Activities284662686.0%
16Median Teacher Salary56,001864,043
Data from NJDoE 2014 Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending.[2]
*Of K-12 districts with more than 3,500 students. Lowest spending=1; Highest=103

The Pleasantville Public Schools are a comprehensive community public school district that serves students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade from the City of Pleasantville, in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts statewide,[3] which are now referred to as "SDA Districts" based on the requirement for the state to cover all costs for school building and renovation projects in these districts under the supervision of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority.[4][5]

As of the 2011-12 school year, the district's seven schools had an enrollment of 3,223 students and 378.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 8.53:1.[1]

The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "A", the lowest 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.[6]

Students from Absecon attend the district's high school for ninth through twelfth grades as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Absecon Public School District.[7]

Awards and recognition

For the 2005-06 school year, Washington Avenue Elementary School was one of 22 schools statewide selected as Governor's School of Excellence Winners, an award given to schools that demonstrated significant improvement over the previous two academic years.[8]

In March 2007, the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education appointed a monitor to supervise and address a series of issues raised regarding the district's financial practices and "to ensure that state school aid is spent efficiently and effectively".[9]

Controversy

On September 6, 2007, The FBI arrested five members of the Pleasantville school board as part of a federal corruption case that included several state lawmakers and other public officials. Included in the sweep were the arrests of Assemblymen Mims Hackett and Alfred E. Steele, and Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera.[10] Indictments were filed against four sitting members of the Board of Education charging that they had accepted bribes to steer insurance or roofing business from the district. Charged were Jayson Adams (accused of accepting $15,000 in bribes), James McCormick ($3,500), James Pressley ($32,200) and Rafael Velez ($14,000). Former board member Maurice 'Pete' Callaway, a current Pleasantville councilmember, was accused of accepting $13,000 in bribes as part of the scheme and was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison for his role as bagman in the scheme.[11]

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2011-12 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[12]) are:[13][14]

Early childhood
Elementary schools
Middle school

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:[22][23]

References

  1. 1 2 District information for Pleasantville School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  2. ↑ Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending April 2013, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed April 15, 2013.
  3. ↑ Abbott School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed June 15, 2016.
  4. ↑ What are SDA Districts?, New Jersey Schools Development Authority. Accessed August 14, 2012. "SDA Districts are 31 special-needs school districts throughout New Jersey. They were formerly known as Abbott Districts, based on the Abbott v. Burke case in which the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the State must provide 100 percent funding for all school renovation and construction projects in special-needs school districts.... The districts were renamed after the elimination of the Abbott designation through passage of the state's new School Funding Formula in January 2008."
  5. ↑ SDA Districts, New Jersey Schools Development Authority. Accessed August 14, 2012.
  6. ↑ NJ Department of Education District Factor Groups (DFG) for School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  7. ↑ Bogdan, Jennifer. "For the first time in decades, Absecon's students are choosing public schools over private schools", The Press of Atlantic City, April 5, 2011. Accessed November 30, 2014. "For the first time in at least 30 years, more than half of the school district's eighth-graders are choosing public high schools over private ones. In past years, as many as 90 percent of the district's students opted for private school. But about 55 percent of the district's 93 eighth-graders have plans to go on to publicly funded schools in September, including Pleasantville High School, Atlantic County Institute of Technology and Charter Tech High School for the Performing Arts."
  8. ↑ Snapshots of 2005 Governor's School of Excellence Winners, New Jersey Department of Education, backed up by the Internet Archive as of June 26, 2006. Accessed April 17, 2013.
  9. ↑ Commissioner Davy Appoints State Monitor for Pleasantville, New Jersey Department of Education press release, March 29, 2007. Accessed April 17, 2013.
  10. ↑ Baldwin, Tom. "11 arrested in N.J. corruption probe", USA Today, September 6, 2007. Accessed September 6, 2007. "Among the arrested were state Assemblymen Mims Hackett Jr. and Rev. Alfred Steele aides in their legislative offices acknowledged. Also reportedly arrested was Samuel Rivera, the mayor of Passaic, and Keith Reid, the chief of staff to Newark City Council President Mildred Crump."
  11. ↑ "Pleasantville Man Sentenced to 12 Months in Prison for Being a 'Bagman' for Corrupt Payments to Board of Education Member", Federal Bureau of Investigation press release dated January 28, 2009. Accessed July 23, 2011. "A Pleasantville man was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison today for his conviction on charges of assisting former Pleasantville Board of Education member Maurice 'Pete' Callaway in the receipt of cash bribes, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr. announced."
  12. ↑ School Data for the Pleasantville Public Schools, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  13. ↑ Schools Schools, Pleasantville Public Schools. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  14. ↑ New Jersey School Directory, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  15. ↑ Decatur Avenue Early childhood Center, Pleasantville Public Schools. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  16. ↑ Leeds Avenue School, Pleasantville Public Schools. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  17. ↑ North Main Street School, Pleasantville Public Schools. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  18. ↑ South Main Street School, Pleasantville Public Schools. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  19. ↑ Washington Avenue School, Pleasantville Public Schools. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  20. ↑ Pleasantville Middle School, Pleasantville Public Schools. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  21. ↑ Pleasantville High School, Pleasantville Public Schools. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  22. ↑ Administration Main Page, Pleasantville Public Schools. Accessed November 30, 2014.
  23. ↑ New Jersey School Directory for Atlantic County, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed November 30, 2014.

Coordinates: 39°24′49″N 74°31′24″W / 39.413626°N 74.523349°W / 39.413626; -74.523349

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