The West Orange Public Schools is a comprehensive community public school district serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade in West Orange in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
As of the 2019–20 school year, the district, comprised of 12 schools, had an enrollment of 6,718 students and 632.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.6:1.
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.
Since opening its first school in 1895, the district has expanded to include seven elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school. In the 1990s, the district was ranked among the top 1% of schools in the nation by The Washington Post.
Awards, recognition and rankings
The district was selected as one of the 2023 Best Communities for Music Education in the nation by the National Association of Music Merchants.
During the 2008-09 school year, Hazel Avenue School was recognized with the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education, the highest award an American school can receive. In 2022, Redwood Elementary was named as a National Blue Ribbon School, along with eight other schools in the state and 297 schools nationwide.
Schools
Schools in the district (with 2019–20 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are: Early education Betty Maddalena Early Learning Center (with 71 students in PreK) Elementary schools Gregory Elementary School (454 students; in grades K-5) Makeida Hewitt, principal Hazel Avenue Elementary School (320; K-5) Joel Castillo, principal Kelly Elementary School (455; PreK-5). The school was renamed in May 2016 in honor of Mark and Scott Kelly, identical twins who attended what was then Pleasantdale School starting in second grade before becoming NASA astronauts. David Marion, principal Mount Pleasant Elementary School (353; K-5) Marc Lawrence, principal Redwood Elementary School (509; K-5) Kimya Jackson, principal St. Cloud Elementary School (356; K-5) Eric Price, principal Washington Elementary School (417; K-5) Marie DeMaio, principal Middle schools Thomas A. Edison Middle School (516; 6) Steven Melendez, principal Liberty Middle School (536; 7-8) Xavier M. Fitzgerald, principal Roosevelt Middle School (487; 7-8) Lionel O. Hush, principal High School West Orange High School (2,098; 9-12) Oscar Guerrero, principal