# Branchburg Township School District

The Branchburg Township School District is a community public school district serving students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade from Branchburg, in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprising three schools, had an enrollment of 1,325 students and 152.7 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 8.7:1.
The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "I", the second-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.
The public secondary school serving Branchburg for ninth through twelfth grades is Somerville High School, which students attend as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Somerville Public Schools. As of the 2020–21 school year, the high school had an enrollment of 1,155 students and 92.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.6:1.

## History

The sending / receiving relationship between Branchburg and Somerville was formalized in a 1956 agreement between the two districts, though Branchburg students had attended Somerville High School before that time. In 1970, the Somerville district determined that rising enrollments meant that it would no longer be able to include students from Branchburg and set 1975 as the end date for the sending relationship. Branchburg started the process of acquiring a 76-acre (31 ha) site for its own high school that could accommodate up to 950 students.
In May 1971, Somerville reconsidered its planned termination of the sending arrangement and informed Branchburg that its students would still be welcome in Somerville even after the planned 1975 date. Despite the failure of a referendum to pay for a new Branchburg high school, the Branchburg district decided that it wanted to terminate the relationship, even after Somerville had reconsidered its decision. Branchburg filed a petition in 1975 with the New Jersey Department of Education seeking to terminate the send/receive agreement.
Based on a report by the hearing examiner released in 1977, Commissioner of Education Fred G. Burke issued a 1978 decision that the petition be rejected based on the ability of Somerville to serve students from Branchburg with a quality high school education, the financial impact of higher per-pupil costs to both municipalities and the creation of greater racial imbalance in the Somerville district. The State Board of Education agreed with the commissioner's decision and Branchburg's appeal to the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division was rejected in a 1980 decision.

## Schools

Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are:

### Elementary schools

* Whiton Elementary School with 544 students in grades PreK-3
** Dee Shober, principal
* Stony Brook School with 287 students in grades 4–5
** Kristen Kries, principal

### Middle school

* Branchburg Central Middle School with 431 students in grades 6–8
** Christina Steffner, acting principal

## Administration

Core district administration members are:
* Karen Chase, superintendent of Schools
* Sally Dolan, business administrator and board secretary

## Board of education

The district's board of education is composed of nine members who set policy and oversee the fiscal and educational operation of the district through its administration. As a Type II school district, the board's trustees are elected directly by voters to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with three seats up for election each year held (since 2012) as part of the November general election. The board appoints a superintendent to oversee the district's day-to-day operations and a business administrator to supervise the business functions of the district.