Lower Cape May Regional School District

Lower Cape May Regional School District
687 Route 9
Cape May, NJ 08204
District information
Grades 7-12
Superintendent Christopher Kobik
Business administrator Mark Mallett
Schools 2
Students and staff
Enrollment 1422 (as of 2015-16)[1]
Faculty 131.46 FTEs[1]
Student-teacher ratio 10.82:1[1]
Other information
District Factor Group B
Website http://www.lcmrschools.com
Ind.Per pupilDistrict
spending		Rank
(*)		9-12
average		%± vs.
average
1ATotal Spending$21,74029$18,89115.1%
1Budgetary Cost16,1182414,58610.5%
2Classroom Instruction9,539318,33914.4%
6Support Services1,959132,114-7.3%
8Administrative Cost1,662241,5616.5%
10Operations & Maintenance2,044261,79813.7%
13Extracurricular Activities64111673-4.8%
16Median Teacher Salary70,4132765,769
Data from NJDoE 2014 Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending.[2]
*Of 9-12 districts with any number of students. Lowest spending=1; Highest=47

The Lower Cape May Regional School District (LCMR School District) is regional public school district headquartered in Lower Township, New Jersey, United States, that serves students in seventh through twelfth grades through from four communities in Cape May County, including Lower Township, Cape May City and West Cape May, with students from Cape May Point attending as part of a sending/receiving relationship.[3][4]

The district's board of education consists of nine members. Seven members are from Lower Township, with one member each from both Cape May and West Cape May.

As of the 2014-15 school year, the district's two schools had an enrollment of 145 students and 134.9 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 1.1:1.[1]

The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "B", the second 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.[5]

History

As of 2014, the city of Cape May contributed $6.5 million in property taxes to cover the 67 students from the city attending the district, an average of $97,300 per student. Cape May officials have argued that the district's funding formula based on assessed property values unfairly penalizes Cape May, which has higher property values and a smaller number of high school students as a percentage of the population than the other constituent districts, especially Lower Township; Cape May has 6% of students while its share of property taxes for the district is one third. A change to base contributions on the number of students would cut property taxes in Cape May by $1,250 per home and in West Cape May by almost $1,100, while taxes for the average homeowner in Lower Township would increase by more than $400.[6] In 2012, Cape May contributed $6 million in property taxes and sent 120 students to the regional district, an average of $50,000 per student.[7]

In 2013, the Lower Cape May Regional School District received a feasibility study that would look at ways to reconfigure the district, which had been established in 1956. The study considered Cape May City withdrawing from the regional district or the dissolution of the district, converting the existing PreK-6 Lower Township School District to serve PreK-12, as the regional district's school facilities are located in the township. Cape May City and West Cape May could see annual savings approaching a combined $6 million from the dissolution.[4]

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2014-15 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[8]) are:[9]

  • Richard M. Teitelman Middle School[10] (grades 7 and 8; 524 students)
    • Gregory Lasher, Principal
    • Mark Schiffbauer, Vice Principal
  • Lower Cape May Regional High School[3] (9-12; 905)
    • Lawrence Ziemba, Principal
    • Peter Daly, Vice Principal
    • Joy Ford, Vice Principal

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:[11][12]

  • Christopher Kobik, Superintendent
  • Mark Mallett, Business Administrator / Board Secretary

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 District information for Lower Cape May Regional School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 7, 2016.
  2. ↑ Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending April 2013, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed April 15, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Lower Cape May Regional High School, Lower Cape May Regional School District. Accessed December 26, 2016. "Lower Cape May Regional High School is a four year public school that serves students from four communities including Cape May, Lower Township, West Cape May and Cape May Point."
  4. 1 2 Johnson, Virgil; and Kirtland, James L. "A Feasibility Study to Reconfigure the Lower Cape May Regional School District", Statistical Forecasting LLC, June 2013. Accessed June 18, 2014. "Cape May City is one of three constituent communities served by the Lower Cape May Regional School District ("Lower Cape May Regional"), a limited purpose school district providing education for the middle and high school students from Cape May City, Lower Township, and West Cape May.... Students from cape May Point attend on a sending-receiving basis."
  5. ↑ NJ Department of Education District Factor Groups (DFG) for School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 22, 2014.
  6. ↑ Degener, Richard. "Lower Cape May Regional School District towns to vote on funding formula", The Press of Atlantic City, October 5, 2014. Accessed September 19, 2017. "When that mix makes up a school district, the island towns tend to pay significantly more per pupil than the mainland towns. That’s because the state formula deciding who pays is not based on how many pupils are sent.... Cape May now pays $6,520,338 for its 67 students. Under a per pupil system it would pay $932,754."
  7. ↑ Fichter, Jack. "Cape May Paying $50K Per Student to Regional School District", Cape May County Herald, January 4, 2012. Accessed July 31, 2017. "CAPE MAY — Taxpayers here pay $50,000 per year for each student sent to the Lower Cape May Regional High School District, a total of $6 million per year.... Deputy Mayor Jack Wichterman said Cape May was paying $6 million to send 120 kids to the regional school district.... 'We have no say in the formula that's utilized to determine how much money we pay to that school district,' he said. 'There are several formulas that can be used and the one that the Lower Township members of that school board chose to use is the one that penalizes the City of Cape May because our real estate values are so much higher than they are in Lower Township.'"
  8. ↑ School Data for the Lower Cape May Regional High School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 7, 2016.
  9. ↑ New Jersey School Directory for the Lower Cape May Regional School District, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 26, 2016.
  10. ↑ Richard M. Teitelman Middle School, Lower Cape May Regional School District. Accessed December 26, 2016.
  11. ↑ District Information, Lower Cape May Regional School District. Accessed December 26, 2016.
  12. ↑ New Jersey School Directory for Cape May County, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 26, 2016.

Coordinates: 38°58′55″N 74°54′17″W / 38.982009°N 74.904686°W / 38.982009; -74.904686

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