Camden High School (New Jersey)


Camden High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school that serves students between ninth grade and twelfth grade from the city of Camden, in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. The school is part of the Camden City Public Schools, which is classified as an Abbott District. The school, established in 1891, celebrated its centennial in 1991. The school was originally known as the Camden Manual Training and High School, admitting its first class of 48 boys in 1891, with girls entering the school three years later. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1929.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 395 students and 39.0 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 10.1:1. There were 206 students eligible for free lunch and 0 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
In 2003, Bonsall Family School, Camden High School and East Camden Middle School were identified as three of the seven "persistently dangerous" high schools in New Jersey.

History

Camden High School was established in 1891 and was known as the Camden Manual Training High School in that time period. The school was built in a similar styles of the Center Philadelphia high schools, which were known to have "cutting edge innovation". It was located on 123 Federal Street in 1891". Arthur Truscott and Pail ArmonDavis III were the architects that designed the school. In 1891, the school accepted 48 boys, then, three years later, they accepted a group of girls. Due to the rapid increase in the population of the school, the school had to expand and relocate to Haddon and Newton Avenues.
On May 9, 1969, a group of 100 white residents marched to the home of Camden Mayor Alfred R. Pierce to insist that white students receive protection from the black students that were the majority at Camden High School. Black students were fighting for administrative and curriculum changes, wanted more courses on African American culture and history in school and sought the appointment of an African American principal and athletic coaches. The Mayor planned to call in the police to deal with the situation at the school but he did not let the parents know. The white parents were not going to send their children back to school until the situation was resolved. Charles V. Koppenhaver, the Principal, told black students that he would retire at the end of the next month and he would do so for them.
In 2003, based on reports of violence, Camden High School was identified as "persistently dangerous" by the New Jersey Department of Education, one of seven schools in the state listed in an annual report required under the No Child Left Behind Act; under the terms of the federal act, families were notified and given the option to transfer to a different school.
In 2008, there was a fight in the cafeteria of the school. 18 teenagers were arrested after this event and there was a police with a bruised face. This same year, there was a 14 year old student that was brought a gun to the school and the high School had to change their principal.

Demolition

In 2008, Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie announced plans to renovate Camden High School. He approved a budget of $100 million for renovation until in 2011 when he decided that it was not be the best way to solve the problems of the school. This ultimately led to the decision to demolish and rebuild the high school because it was much more economical to rebuild a new school than to renovate the old school. The school was demolished after the end of the 2016/2017 school year. On November 27, 2017, the attempt to demolish Camden High School by the school's parent association was denied by Judge Nan S. Famular. It was denied because the superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard and the city school board as defendants said that it was a violation of New Jersey Register of Historic Places Act to destroy the high school. Mo'Neke Ragsdale, a member of the Camden High PTA, believed that putting resources towards saving the school was not worth the effort but still wanted to save the school. The final decision was ruled by a state Superior Court Judge allowing the demolition of the high school. The parts of the school that were to be demolished were the ones that were where built before 1917. They would be replaced with a $133 million dollar budget for academic buildings that would be considered state-of-the-art. Alumni of Camden High School and the group "Stop the Demolition of Camden High", led by Mo'Neke Ragsdale, fought to preserve the old Camden High School. They sought to add Camden High School to the list of National Register of Historic Places. They wanted the construction to be on the back of the school because they had over 18 acres of land. The students will use the Cooper B. Hatch Middle school for their classes while construction continues in their school. As of 2019, the construction of the new Camden High School is expected to be finished by 2021.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 339th-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. The school had been ranked 287th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 322nd and lowest in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 316th in 2008 as the lowest out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 314th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.

Performance and building condition

A report issued in 2014 indicated that in the city of 80,000, only three high school students posted SAT scores deemed "college ready."

Athletics

The Camden High School Panthers compete in the Olympic Conference, an athletic conference consisting of public and private high schools located in Burlington County, Camden County and Gloucester County. The Olympic Conference operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 550 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019-20 school year as Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 486 to 758 students in that grade range. The football team competes in the Constitution Division of the 95-team West Jersey Football League superconference and was classified by the NJSIAA as South Jersey Group II for football for 2018-20.
Previously, the athletic teams at Camden High School were called/known as the "Purple Avalanche," a fitting name for the large football teams on the sideline at the start of their games in the 1960s and 1970s. As of 2009, Camden High had won over 41 South Jersey Championships, and appeared in over 20 state championship games, winning 11 of them.
The school and their crosstown rival, Woodrow Wilson High School, still play the traditional Thanksgiving Day football game each year. The Thanksgiving Day game in 1979 was suspended after rival gangs started shooting at each other, resulting in at least 14 injuries and dozens of arrests.
The boys' basketball team went undefeated in both 1959 and 1960, winning state championships each year. The team won a total of seven state championships in the 1970s and 1980s. USA Today ranked the 1986 team as number one nationwide. Curtis Walls, Lee Wall, Louis Banks, Sean Turner, Larry Cohen, Reggie Lawrence, Kevin Smith, Dennis Brown, Davis Nieves, and Vic Carstarphen all played on this team.
The boys basketball team won the Group IV state championship in 1945, 1959, 1960, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, and won the Group III title in 1974 and 2000. The 11 group championships won by the team is tied for the fourth most in the state. The team won the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions in 2000, defeating Seton Hall Preparatory School by a scoe of 50-46 in the tournament final.
The 2000 boys' basketball team won the South Jersey Group III state championship as the seventh-seeded team, with an 89–64 win against top seed Lakewood High School, as Dajuan Wagner topped all scorers with 43 points. Camden High went on to win the State Group III title against Malcolm X Shabazz High School. From there they moved on to the Tournament of Champions, which pits each state champion against each other to determine one overall champion. Camden defeated Seton Hall Preparatory School in the championship game.
The boys track team won the indoor track championship in Group III in 1997, 2001, 2007 and 2008 and won in Group II in 2005.

Administration

The school's principal is Pia Garbutt.

Notable alumni