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 had been accredited  by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools from 1929 until 2011, when the accredited status was removed. As of the 2020–21 school year, the school had an enrollment of 347 students and 34.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.1:1. There were 189 students (54.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and none eligible for reduced-cost lunch. History. Camden High School was established in 1891 and was known as the Camden Manual Training High School. 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. The school was designed by architects Arthur Truscott and Pail Armon Davis III. In 1891, the school accepted 48 boys; three years later, the first group of girls was accepted. 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 who 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, 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 (and one of two high schools) 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, a cafeteria brawl led to the arrest of 18 students, a 14-year-old student was found with a  gun loaded with hollow-point bullets, and the school principal was replaced. 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. Demolition. In 2008, Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine announced plans to renovate Camden High School at an estimated cost of $100 million for renovation. In 2011, Chris Christie cancelled the project after deciding that it was not 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. On November 27, 2017, an attempt to demolish Camden High School by the school's parent association was denied by Judge Nan S. Famular. It was denied because superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard and the city's school board, as defendants, argued that it was a violation of the 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 school was demolished after the end of the 2016/2017 school year. The parts of the school that were to be demolished were the ones that were built before 1917. They would be replaced with a $133 million 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 building. They sought to add Camden High School to the 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. Construction. As part of a $132.6 million construction project begun at the start of the 2017–18 school year at Camden High School by the New Jersey Schools Development Authority, the school's 500 students were shifted to the Hatch Middle School building. The new building will be completed for the 2021–22 school year and be able to accommodate 1,200 students when it reopens . As of 2019, the construction of the new Camden High School building is expected to be finished by 2021. Current students are temporarily using Cooper B. Hatch Middle school for their classes while construction continues. 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 (NJSIAA). 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 Memorial Division of the 95-team West Jersey Football League superconference and was classified by the NJSIAA as Group II South for football for 2018–2020. Previously, the athletic teams at Camden High School were called/known as the "Purple  Avalanche," a fitting name for the large football teams (60 or more players) 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 school has  had a football rivalry since 1931 with Camden Catholic High School; Camden Catholic leads the series with an overall record of 35-29-2 through the 2017 season. NJ.com listed the rivalry as 28th on its 2017 list "Ranking the 31 fiercest rivalries in N.J. HS football" The boys basketball team won the Group IV state championship in 1945 (vs. Union Hill High School in the final game of the tournament), 1959 (vs. Weequahic High School), 1960 (vs. Weequahic), 1978 (vs. Linden High School), 1979 (vs. Union Hill), 1982 (vs. Montclair High School), 1984 (vs. JFK of Paterson), 1986 (vs.  Montclair), 1987 (vs. JFK of Paterson), and won the Group III title in 1974 (vs. Memorial of West New York) and 2000 (vs. Lawrence High School). The 11 group championships won by the program is tied for the fourth-most of any school in the state. The 1945 team won the Group IV title with a 46-38 win against Union Hill in the championship game played at the Elizabeth Armory. The boys' basketball team went undefeated in both 1959 and 1960, winning state championships each year. The team won the 1959 Group IV state title with a 94-73  win against Weequahic in the championship game. A crowd of 5,000 at the Camden Convention Hall watched the 1960 team win the Group IV title with a 64-49 victory against Weequahic in the finals to extened the teams unbeaten streak to 47 games over two seasons. 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 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 the six state group champions (four public school and two private school groups) against each other to determine one overall champion. Camden defeated Seton Hall Preparatory School by a score of 50–46 in the tournament final. The  boys track team won the Group IV spring track state championship in 1975 and 1995-1997, and won the Group III title in 1998-2001, 2004 and 2005. The program's 10 state titles are tied for eighth in the state. The 1976 football team finished the season with an 11-0 record after winning the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV state sectional title with a 30-13 victory against Toms River High School South in the championship game. The girls team won the NJSIAA spring track Group IV state championship in 1978 and 1979, won the Group III title  in 2008, and won in Group II in 2009. The girls track team won the indoor relay championship in Group III in 1994 and 2008. The boys team won the Group III title in 1997 and 1999, and won the Group II title in 2005. The boys track team won the indoor track championship in Group IV in 1996, in Group III in 1997, 2001, 2007 and 2008 (as co-champion) and won in Group II in 2005. Administration. The school's principal is Pia Garbutt. Her administration team includes the dean of students and the athletic director. Camden High