Categories: Camden

News from Camden: Traditional Schools are Improving

Traditional Camden schools, reports Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard, are showing signs of improvement, and therefore this year the district will not convert any schools into hybrid district/charter renaissance schools.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer;

Last year, Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard changed five city schools into charter-public “Renaissance” schools, an announcement that sparked concern among some teachers and residents that he planned to quickly eradicate the remainder of Camden’s traditional public schools. This year, no additional conversions will be made [district spokesman Brendan], Lowe said, in part to allow the newly formed schools time to settle, but also largely because Rouhanifard believes that schools across the district are improving. 

“It’s going to take a long time, but we see incremental progress,” Lowe said. “It’s encouraging, and we want to support that.”

There will be some school assignment changes all within the Parkside neighborhood. One hundred fifty students currently attending MetEast High School, one of Camden’s two magnet schools, will move into the building that houses Cooper B. Hatch Family School. This school will now be known as Hatch-MetEast and serve students in grades 6-12.  This move will give older students access to an auditorium and gym, as well as a program that encourages students to sign up for internships and senior projects. It will also solve ongoing facilities problems at the old MetEast school, which include erratic access to wifi and recurrent flooding problems.

These changes were driven by parent input — families were concerned, for example, about housing kindergarteners and 8th graders within the same program — as well as declining enrollment at Hatch Family School.

Laura Waters

View Comments

Recent Posts

BREAKING: Statement from JerseyCAN on State’s Long-Delayed Release of Student Test Results

This is a statement by Paula White, Executive Director of JerseyCAN, on the New Jersey…

2 years ago

NJEA: Murphy’s Elimination of Teacher Performance Test Is a Major Win for Students and Educators

This is a press release. Earlier today, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill to eliminate…

2 years ago

Murphy Signs Bill Eliminating EdTPA Test for Teacher Certification

Today Gov. Phil Murphy signed Senate Bill 896, which prohibits the New Jersey Department of…

2 years ago

LILLEY: Blue States Had More School Closures and More Learning Loss — Just Like NJ under Gov. Murphy

The 74 conducted a study of the relative learning loss in Democratic (Blue) and Republican (Red) states and…

2 years ago

One of Newark Superintendent’s New High Schools Tolerates Racism Against Black Students

In October 2020 Newark Superintendent Roger Leon announced with great fanfare the opening of district’s…

2 years ago