Type Public School district Palmyra Public Schools Asst. principal Chris Tracey Phone +1 856-786-8050 Color White Founded 1895 | Established 1895 Principal Ken Holloway Faculty 40.3 FTEs District Palmyra Public Schools Number of students 421 (2014–2015) | |
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Address 311 W 5th St, Palmyra, NJ 08065, USA Athletics conference Burlington County Scholastic League Similar Cinnamin High School, Palmyra School Superinte, Riverside Middle School, Holy Cross Academy, Burlington City High School | ||
Palmyra High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Palmyra in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Palmyra Public Schools. High school classes began shortly after the completion of the Spring Garden Street School in 1895; this building is on the National Register of Historic Places. With increased enrollment, the school was moved to a former girls school, Berkeley Hall, in 1907, and to its own building in 1909. A large addition was completed in 1922. The 1909 structure was destroyed by fire in 1957, and after a vote that narrowly defeated establishing a regional high school, additions were made to the building in 1958 and 1961.
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As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 421 students and 40.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.5:1. There were 125 students (29.7% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 44 (10.5% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
Students from Beverly and Riverton attend the district's high school as part of sending/receiving relationships. In past years, students from Cinnaminson Township, Delanco Township, Delran Township, Riverside Township, and the Delair portion of Pennsauken Township had also attended Palmyra High School
Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 260th-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 222nd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 208th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 224th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 275th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school 318th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 16 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (94.6%) and language arts literacy (97.9%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).
Athletics
The Palmyra High School Panthers compete in the Freedom division of the Burlington County Scholastic League (BCSL), a sports association operating under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) that consists of public and non-public high schools covering Burlington County, Mercer County and Ocean County in Central Jersey. With 241 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as South Jersey, Group I for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 78 to 478 students in that grade range.
The school mascot is currently the "Panther," but at the time of the school's inception, its teams were known as the Red Devils. This name was then changed to the Pals, which was used until the 1980s. The school colors have remained the same: red and white.
Students competed in track and field as early as 1903, and in football by 1908. Palmyra's overall record in football, through the 2016 season, is 534 wins, 426 losses, and 49 ties. The team was declared the South Jersey Group II champion in 1946, 1947, 1948, 1951, and 1953; the Group III title was won in 1963, and Group I honors were won in 1971 and 1972. The team won the South Jersey Group I state sectional playoffs in 1978. The Palmyra / Burlington City High School football rivalry, begun in 1908, is one of the oldest in South Jersey; Palmyra leads the series 56-45-12, after defeating Burlington 29-26 on Thanksgiving Day 2016. The Palmyra / Riverside High School rivalry dates from 1928, and Palmyra leads that series 59-23-3, after a 28-21 victory on opening night in 2016. The Palmyra High School football stadium was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1939, and recently renovated to include lighting.
The boys' basketball team won the 1956 Group II state title vs. Roselle Park High School.
The baseball team won the Group I state championship in 1973, defeating Cedar Grove High School in the tournament final.
The Palmyra boys soccer team won their first South Jersey Group I state sectional championship in 1989 with a 1-0 win in double overtime against a Haddonfield High School team that came into the title game undefeated. The team won the 2009 State Group I championship as co-champion with Jonathan Dayton High School after the title game ended in a 0-0 tie. The team won the South Jersey title, beating Pitman High School on penalty kicks in a 2-2 tie; they won the state semi-final in the same fashion, defeating Metuchen High School 4-1 on penalty kicks in a scoreless match.
The 2006 girls' soccer team won the South Jersey, Group I state sectional title with a 1-0 win against Woodstown High School in the tournament final, the team's first-ever title.
The girls' basketball team won the 2007 South Jersey, Group I state sectional championship with a 46-37 win over Wildwood High School in the tournament final. The team won their semifinal game in the Group I state championship tournament, defeating Highland Park High School 49-43, before falling to University High School in the championship game.
Administration
Core members of the school's administration are: