Lenape Regional High School District

The Lenape Regional High School District is a comprehensive regional public high school district that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from eight municipalities in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. The communities in the district are Evesham Township, Medford Lakes, Medford Township, Mount Laurel Township, Shamong Township, Southampton Township, Tabernacle Township and Woodland Township.[3][4][5][6] The eight municipalities cover a combined area of 350 square miles (910 km2) which represents roughly one-third of the entire area of Burlington County, the largest county in New Jersey. Each of the eight communities served by the Lenape District has its own elementary school district.[7] Each elementary school district is governed by its own nine-member board of education which oversees the school budget and the education of students in pre-kindergarten / kindergarten through eighth grade.

Lenape Regional High School District
Address
93 Willow Grove Road
Shamong Township
, Burlington County, New Jersey, 08088
United States
Coordinates39.792053°N 74.754234°W / 39.792053; -74.754234
District information
Grades9-12
SuperintendentDr. Carol L. Birnbohm
Business administratorConstance L. Stewart
Schools4
Students and staff
Enrollment6,717 (as of 2021–22)[1]
Faculty577.5 FTEs[1]
Student–teacher ratio11.6:1[1]
Other information
District Factor GroupGH
Websitewww.lrhsd.org
Ind.Per pupilDistrict
spending		Rank
(*)		9-12
average		 %± vs.
average
1ATotal Spending$21,87830$18,89115.8%
1Budgetary Cost16,9423415,5928.7%
2Classroom Instruction9,881418,80712.2%
6Support Services2,384252,2943.9%
8Administrative Cost1,453121,592−8.7%
10Operations & Maintenance2,172341,95411.2%
13Extracurricular Activities9823187312.5%
16Median Teacher Salary75,1643771,726
Data from NJDoE 2014 Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending.[2]
*Of 9-12 districts with any number of students. Lowest spending=1; Highest=47

As of the 2021–22 school year, the district, comprised of four schools, had an enrollment of 6,717 students and 577.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.6:1.[1]

The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "GH", the third-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.[8]

History

The regional district was formed after 93% of voters approved the passage of a referendum in September 1955 by residents of the original seven constituent municipalities -- Evesham, Medford, Mount Laurel, Shamong, Southampton and Tabernacle Townships, along with Medford Lakes -- to cover the cost of a $2 million (equivalent to $21.8 million in 2022) facility that would serve 1,000 students.[9][10] Delaware Township (since renamed as Cherry Hill), Maple Shade Township and Woodland Township townships had considered -- and turned down -- the opportunity to join the nascent regional district.[11]

A plot covering 50 acres (20 ha) in Medford was selected in June 1956 as a site for the district's first high school facility.[12] Lenape High School opened in September 1958 with 548 students in 9th and 10th grades only, before which students from Medford, Medford Lakes and Tabernacle Township had attended Rancocas Valley Regional High School.[13] By the 1961-62 school year, Lenape was on double sessions with approximately 1,500 students. In July 1961, an addition to the original building was started, with a second addition dedicated on January 17, 1965.[14]

A second high school, announced in 1968 with an estimated cost of $3.5 million (equivalent to $29.5 million in 2022), was designed to accommodate a student body of 1,500 and include 26 classrooms, a gym, cafeteria, and a 600-seat auditorium.[15] Shawnee High School opened in 1970 as the second of the district's four high schools.[16][17]

With overcrowding at both Lenape (with 2,400 students) and Shawnee (1,600) high schools requiring split sessions, voters approved a December 1972 referendum to construct a third high school that would have a capacity of 1,500 students and be constructed on the same model as Shawnee. The ballot item was approved by a 55-45% margin, with voters in favor in Evesham, Medford and Mount Laurel Townships, while it was rejected in Medford Lakes and Shamong, Southampton and Tabernacle Townships.[18] Cherokee High School opened in September 1975 with 750 students in grades 9 and 10, by which time district enrollment had grown to nearly 5,000. The school was constructed at a cost of $7 million (equivalent to $38.1 million in 2022) on a site in Evesham Township covering 71 acres (29 ha).[11][19][20]

In 1996, legislation introduced by State Senator C. William Haines and signed into law by Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman would allow the Woodland Township School District to sever its sending/receiving relationship with the Pemberton Township School District and join the Lenape Regional District; Pemberton would not be required to give permission for Woodland Township to leave, but Lenape Regional would have to agree to accept the township's students. Woodland Township had been sending about 30 students a year -- and nearly $300,000 in tuition payments -- to attend the 1,350-student Pemberton Township High School as part of a relationship that dated back to the 1920s. For years, the Pemberton district had refused Woodland Township's repeated requests to terminate the relationship.[21] In May 1997, the Lenape district agreed to start accepting students from Woodland Township at Lenape High School starting with the 1997-98 school year and to add Woodland Township as the regional district's eight constituent municipality.[22]

A 210,000 square feet (20,000 m2) Cherokee High School South "school-within-a-school" opened in September 2001 for 1,150 students in grades 9-10, which was constructed at a cost of $26.4 million (equivalent to $43.6 million in 2022), at which time the original building was renamed as Cherokee High School North.[23] [14] In 2018, with the retirement of the South principal, Leonard Iannelli, Cherokee eliminated the position, effectively merging the North and South building into one school.[24]

Approved by voters in 1997, the 255,000-square-foot (23,700 m2) Seneca High School was expected to be completed by 2000, to be constructed on a 201-acre (81 ha) site designed to accommodate an enrollment of 2,000. The school opened in September 2007 with 860 students from Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle and Woodland Townships and was completed at a cost of $45.7 million (equivalent to $64.5 million in 2022). Delays caused by lawsuits related to the building site in the Pinelands resulted in budget overruns of $8.7 million.[25]

District schools

When the public school students in each of the sending districts graduate from eighth grade, they are sent to one of the four high schools that fall under the jurisdiction of the Lenape Regional High School District. Schools in the district (with 2021–22 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[26]) are:[14][27][28][29][30]

High schools
  • Cherokee High School[31] - located in Evesham Township, with 2,165 students from Evesham Township. Opened 1975.
    • Donna Charlesworth, principal[32]
  • Lenape High School[33] - located in Medford Township, with 1,924 students from Mount Laurel Township. Opened 1958.
    • Tony Cattani, principal[32]
  • Seneca High School[34] - located in Tabernacle Township, with 1,026 students from Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle and Woodland Townships. Opened 2003.
    • Bradley Bauer, principal[32]
  • Shawnee High School[35] - located in Medford Township, with 1,500 students from Medford Lakes and Medford Township. Opened 1970.
    • Matthew Campbell, principal[32]
Alternative program
  • Sequoia Alternative Program[36] - located in Evesham Township in the former Evans Elementary School
    • Ben Lamberson, Director[32]

Two non-profit foundations support the Lenape District, raising funds to support scholarships for students, facilities improvements and a 1,500-seat regional performing arts center, which is home to the Cherokee's theater program.

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:[37][38]

  • Dr. Carol L. Birnbohm, superintendent
  • Constance L. Stewart, business administrator and board secretary

Board of education

The district's board of education, comprised of 11 members, sets policy and oversees 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 either three or four 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.[39][40] Each of the eight constituent municipalities has at least one seat on the board, with two seats allocated to the three most populous constituent municipalities—Evesham, Medford and Mount Laurel—and the five other municipalities each assigned one seat.[41][42]

Student body

In 1996, the percentage of students who matriculated to community colleges or four-year universities for all schools was at least 80% per school.[43]

References
  1. District information for Lenape Regional High School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 1, 2022.
  2. Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending April 2013, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed April 15, 2013.
  3. Lenape Regional Board of Education District Policy 0110 - Name, Composition & Classification, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed June 7, 2020. "Section 2 – Purpose: The Board of Education exists for the purpose of providing a thorough and efficient system of free public education in grades nine through twelve in the Lenape Regional High School District. Section 3 – Composition: The Lenape Regional High School District shall be organized in the territory comprised of the municipalities of: Evesham, Medford, Medford Lakes, Mount Laurel, Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle and Woodland for the limited purpose of providing and operating a high school district (9-12)."
  4. Lenape Regional High School District 2016 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed June 7, 2020. "The Lenape Regional High School District (LRHSD) serves the eight municipalities of Evesham, Medford, Mount Laurel, Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle and Woodland Townships and Medford Lakes Borough. Encompassing an area of 350 square miles the Lenape District is the largest school district in Burlington County."
  5. "2005 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book", Rutgers University Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, April 2006.
  6. Staff. "Regional School Districts", Burlington County Times, April 26, 2015. Accessed April 2, 2020. "Lenape Regional Serves: Evesham, Medford, Medford Lakes, Mount Laurel, Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle, Woodland"
  7. Sending Schools, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed May 20, 2021.
  8. NJ Department of Education District Factor Groups (DFG) for School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 3, 2014.
  9. "7 Burlington Towns Vote to Build $2 Million Regional High School", Courier-Post, September 21, 1955. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Residents of seven municipalities in the southern part of Burlington County gave a resounding 'yes' Tuesday to a proposal to create a new regional high school. At a special school election, the vote was 'yes' 1413 to 'no' on a plan to build a school to cost an approximate $2 million and which would accommodate 1000 pupils."
  10. "People Back New Schools; School Cost Discrepancies", Courier-Post, September 24, 1955. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "The same night saw another special school election in seven municipalities in southern Burlington County. The question to be voted on was creation of a regional high school district and building of a regional high school. Municipalities involved were Mt. Laurel, Medford, Shamong, Medford Lakes, Tabernacle, Evesham and Southampton, none of which have high schools of their own. All of them gave one-sided majorities in favor of the proposition, the total vote being 1413 to 97 for it. Tentative plans for the new regional school call for a building to accommodate 1000 pupils, costing about $2,000,000."
  11. Curran, Karen. "High schools in Delran, Evesham ready to open", Courier-Post, August 21, 1975. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "It is for students from Evesham, but it's also for students from the six other towns which make up the Lenape Regional High School District. The local share of the $7 million cost of Cherokee High School, the third school in the Lenape district, will be shared by the seven municipalities according to the percentage of tax ratables they have within the district as a whole. Of the district's 4,950 high school students, 750 ninth and tenth graders will go to Cherokee in the fall."
  12. New Site Is Picked For Regional High", Courier-Post, June 2, 1956. Accessed May 20, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "A new site has been chosen for the Lenape Regional High School, according to James Brown, Board of Education president. Brown said a 50-acre tract on the northwest corner of Hartford and Church rds., Medford Township, was chosen after test borings disclosed a former proposed site at Green Tree and Sharp Run rds. to be unsuitable.... The Lenape region was formed after a favorable vote last year by residents in Mt. Laurel, Southampton, Medford, Medford Lakes, Shamong and Tabernacle Townships. Plans are being formed for construction of a proposed $2 million high school."
  13. "Rancocas Regional Completes Opening", Courier-Post, September 10, 1958. Accessed May 20, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "Rancocas Valley Regional High School, Jackonville rd., opens its new school year Thursday for freshman and sophomore students.... Harry Wenrich, school principal, anticipates the total enrollment this year will be 1170 students compared with 1260 last year. Students from Tabernacle, Medford and Medford Lakes who have previously attended classes here will be enrolled in the new Lenape Regional High School at Medford."
  14. Profile and History, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed December 26, 2022. "The Lenape District’s four high schools are: Lenape, Shawnee, Cherokee North and South and Seneca. Students from Mount Laurel attend Lenape; students from Medford, Medford Lakes attend Shawnee; students from Evesham (Marlton) attend Cherokee North and South and students from Tabernacle, Shamong, Southampton and Woodland attend Seneca."
  15. Staff. "High School's Design Reflects Modern Era", The New York Times, June 16, 1968. Accessed January 19, 2020. "The $3.5-million building is actually two buildings--a round, two-story building attached to a one-story crescent-shaped wing by two enclosed passageways resembling spokes in a wheel. Shawnee High School will serve the communities of Medford, Medford Lakes, Mount Laurel, Shamong, Evesham, Southampton and Tabernacle in Burlington County."
  16. "Lenape Regional Schools Take New Discipline Tack", Courier-Post, August 20, 1970. Accessed March 12, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "New Shawnee High School in Medford township, a $4.5 million complex, will open Sept. 8. The round center building houses the 33 regular classrooms; the outer wings include the auditorium, gym and cafeteria. In background are the football and baseball fields."
  17. Staff. "Hall of Fame to honor Lenape High School student-athletes", Burlington County Times, July 6, 2017. Accessed January 19, 2020. "The schools of the Lenape Regional School District have produced thousands of graduates who have distinguished themselves as stellar athletes over the nearly 60 years since Lenape High School opened in 1958, Shawnee High School in 1970, Cherokee High School in 1975 and Seneca High School in 2003."
  18. Ross, Adele. "Lenape School; $7.6 million Bond OKd By Voters", Courier-Post, December 6, 1972. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Voters in the Lenape Regional School District last night approved by a slim margin a $7,695,000 bond issue to give the district the funds to build a third high school. Voting returns showed a count of 1,623 to 1,329 in favor of the bond issue, which means the regional school board can plan on breaking ground in the spring. Although the issue passed by a 293-vote plurality, it was defeated in four of the seven municipalities served by the district.... The facility is expected to open for the 1975-76 school year. The new high school will be built on a 71-acre tract between the Marlton and Kresson sections of Evesham Township, the district's most populous area, to relieve overcrowded conditions in the district's two existing facilities. The 1,500-student school will be built on a tract off Tomlinson Mill Road and will be constructed from the same plans as was the Shawnee High School in Medford.... Overcrowded conditions at both Shawnee and Lenape high schools will necessitate split sessions at the two facilities in the next two years, the superintendent said. Lenape's rolls now top 2,400 students with 2,600 expected next year. There are more than 1,600 students at Shawnee, where an increase of 200 is anticipated in September 1973."
  19. Staff. "Hall of Fame to honor Lenape High School student-athletes", Burlington County Times, July 6, 2017. Accessed January 19, 2020. "The schools of the Lenape Regional School District have produced thousands of graduates who have distinguished themselves as stellar athletes over the nearly 60 years since Lenape High School opened in 1958, Shawnee High School in 1970, Cherokee High School in 1975 and Seneca High School in 2003."
  20. Profile, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed March 13, 2022. "By September 1975, a third high school, Cherokee, had been built on a 71 – acre tract at Tomlinson Mill and Willow Bend roads in Evesham Township."
  21. Wilson, David E. "Woodland youths may get to skip Pemberton High; Well, the way is clearer for them to go to Lenape Regional. Parents have yearned for that for years.", The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 1996. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Convinced that the Lenape Regional High School District can offer a better education for graduates of their elementary school, many parents want to end an almost 70-year relationship with Pemberton Township High School.... All that the Woodland educators needed to get started on the switch to Lenape was Pemberton's permission. But Pemberton officials, mindful of the negative publicity such a move would create and the $7,800 annual tuition payment for each graduate of Chatsworth Elementary School said 'no' every time.... Losing Woodland's students would be a financial loss for the Pemberton Township School District, which as a special-needs district already qualifies for additional state dollars. With the transfer of the Woodland students, the high school would lose about $300,000. About 1,350 students attend Pemberton Township High School."
  22. Harbach, Louise. "Lenape district board lets Woodland in", The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 12, 1997. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "After years spent trying to sever its sending-receiving relationship with Pemberton Township, the Woodland Board of Education has finally gotten its wish: Come September, high school students from the sprawling 94-square-mile township deep in the Pinelands will attend school in the Lenape Regional High School District. Next year, about 15 Woodland students from the sparsely populated municipality will go to Lenape Regional High School, one of three high schools in the Lenape district, following a decision Tuesday by the Lenape school board. As a result of the Lenape board's decision, Woodland will be admitted as the eighth member of the regional district. Since 1958, Lenape has consisted of students from Evesham, Medford, Medford Lakes, Mount Laurel, Shamong, Southampton and Tabernacle."
  23. "Cherokee South receives A+", Courier-Post, September 9, 2001. Accessed March 13, 2022, via newspapers.com. "Education leaders from Burlington County gathered here Saturday to ceremonially throw open the doors to the new $26.4 million Cherokee High School South. It is a school within a school that is now home for 1,150 ninth- and 10th-graders who live in the township.... On Tuesday, the 210,000-square-foot addition opened to freshmen with state-of-the-art laboratories, spacious corridors and natural lighting around virtually every corner. Combined with the former Cherokee High School, now called Cherokee North, the education complex stretches some 455,000 square feet."
  24. Hatoff, Mark. "One Of Two Principal Positions To Be Eliminated At Cherokee High", Pine Barrens Tribune, May 11, 2018. Accessed January 19, 2020. "The Lenape Regional High School District (LRHSD) Board of Education will eliminate one of two Cherokee High School principal positions in the 2018-19 school year, following an Aug. 1 retirement of longtime Cherokee South Principal Leonard Iannelli, according to Finance Committee Chair David Stow. The use of separate Cherokee High School North and South designations had been used to justify having two principals at what is essentially the same school, even though a similarly redundant position was eliminated a couple years ago at Lenape High School."
  25. Daniels, Mike. "Seneca High awaits Students; School will get 860 students from 4 S. J. towns in first year", Courier-Post, August 25, 2003. Accessed March 12, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Seneca High School, the newest addition to the Lenape Regional High School District, is ready and waiting for students and teachers to fill its hallways, gymnasiums and classrooms. The 255,008-square-foot building sits on 210 acres on Carranza Road.... The school, approved by district voters in a 1997 referendum, will house about 860 students from Tabernacle, Shamong, Southampton and Woodland in its first year. The move to Seneca was mandatory for all incoming ninth- and 10th-graders in the four Pinelands townships.... Enrollment should rise to more than 1,400 within two years, district officials said. The $45.7 million building can hold 1,500 students and was designed to allow for expansion to hold 2,000 students.... The school originally was scheduled to open in 2000. But construction was delayed by a series of legal challenges filed by the nonprofit Pinelands Preservation Alliance and a citizens organization, the Rural Tabernacle Coalition. The legal challenges contributed to the school costing about $8.7 million more than originally planned."
  26. School Data for the Lenape Regional High School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 1, 2022.
  27. At Which School Does My Child Register?, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed May 20, 2021.
  28. Staff. "Hall of Fame to honor Lenape High School student-athletes", Burlington County Times, July 6, 2017. Accessed January 19, 2020. "The schools of the Lenape Regional School District have produced thousands of graduates who have distinguished themselves as stellar athletes over the nearly 60 years since Lenape High School opened in 1958, Shawnee High School in 1970, Cherokee High School in 1975 and Seneca High School in 2003."
  29. School Performance Reports for the Lenape Regional High School District, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed March 13, 2022.
  30. New Jersey School Directory for Lenape Regional High School District, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 29, 2016.
  31. Cherokee High School, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed March 12, 2022.
  32. Student Handbook 2021-22, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed March 13, 2022.
  33. Lenape High School, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed March 12, 2022.
  34. Seneca High School, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed March 12, 2022.
  35. Shawnee High School, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed March 12, 2022.
  36. Sequoia Alternative Program, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed March 12, 2022.
  37. Administration, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed December 26, 2022.
  38. New Jersey School Directory for Burlington County, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 29, 2016.
  39. New Jersey Boards of Education by District Election Types - 2018 School Election, New Jersey Department of Education, updated February 16, 2018. Accessed January 26, 2020.
  40. Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for Lenape Regional High School District, New Jersey Department of Education, year ending June 30, 2021. Accessed December 26, 2022. "The Lenape Regional High School District is a Type II School District located in the County of Burlington, State of New Jersey. As a Type II School District, the School District functions independently through a Board of Education. The Board is comprised of eleven members elected to three-year terms. These terms are staggered so that three members’ terms expire each year."
  41. Lenape Regional Board of Education District Policy 0140 - Board Membership, Qualifications, Prohibited Acts, Travel and related Expense, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed April 2, 2020. "The Board of Education shall consist of eleven (11) members. Representation is predicated upon the population of a constituent district in relation to the regional district's total population which in turn is based upon the most recently published U.S. Census Report. Each constituent district shall be entitled to a minimum of one Board member elected at large."
  42. Board of Education, Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed December 26, 2022.
  43. Wilson, David E. "Woodland youths may get to skip Pemberton High; Well, the way is clearer for them to go to Lenape Regional. Parents have yearned for that for years.", The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 1996. Pages BR1-2. Clipping from first page and second page. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com.
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