Students come from around the region
Editor’s note: The statistics in this story are from an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request made by Sentinel reporter David Nahan and fulfilled by Timothy E. Kelley, business administrator for the Ocean City School District.
OCEAN CITY — The overall school population in the Ocean City School District has declined in the past five years, but the 194 School Choice students from around the area has remained steady.
The drop is not only among students who live in Ocean City, but also from its sending districts.
Those students help keep state aid coming to the island district stable and school officials believe the mix of students benefits everyone involved.
Choice students
come from near, far
School Choice students are coming to Ocean City from Brigantine to Absecon to Cape May to Vineland.
The greatest number of students is coming from Margate, a total of 67 as of October 2023. Absecon is sending 37 and Brigantine is contributing 26.
Egg Harbor Township and Estell Manor City each is sending 12 and Ventnor is sending eight.
The rest of the Choice students are coming from districts sending one to five students: five from Mainland Regional and Dennis Township; three each from Atlantic City, Greater Egg Harbor Regional, Lower Cape May Regional and Woodbine Borough; two each from Middle Township and Upper Township; and one each from Cape May, Egg Harbor City, Folsom Boro, Maurice River Township, Vineland and Weymouth Township.
Hometown and sending
district numbers drop
The number of students from Ocean City itself in the district was 1,246 five years ago in the 2018-19 school year, but only 961 in the current year.
The overall population of the district, including the high school, intermediate school and primary school, saw a decline from 2,059 in 2018-19 to 1,856 this year.
From Upper Township, the numbers have seen the largest drop because it is the primary sending district.
In 2013-14, Upper Township sent 649 students to the high school and eight special education students for a total of 657. In 2018-19, it sent 576 students and 12 special education. By this school year, Upper Township was sending 530 and six, respectively.
Corbin City, a tiny community, has been relatively flat, going from 23 to 21 to 24 over those school years.
Sea Isle City, which sends students from K-12, has dropped off in the lower grades and overall, while keeping its numbers at the high school about even.
Sea Isle City sent 102 students in 2013-14, 72 in 2018-19 and 62 this year. The high school numbers for those years are 35, 32 and 32, but dropping numbers in K-5 and grades 6-8 portend a decline in future years at the high school.
There were 41 in K-5 from Sea Isle 10 years ago, 24 five years ago and 19 this year. In grades 6-8, it has gone from 26 to 16 to 11 this year.
Longport, which became a sending district more recently, sent 19 students in 2018-19 and 25 this year.
Sending districts overall sent 15 special education students 10 years ago, 14 five years ago and eight this year.
Choice next year
Ocean City originally accepted some School Choice students in lower grades, but now accepts only students entering ninth grade.
Seventy students participated in the Dec. 18, 2023 lottery for the 33 School Choice seats available in the 2024-25 school year; 37 students were wait-listed. As some who originally accept seats drop out, wait-list students are offered the opportunity. There remains a wait-list for School Choice seats.
Some seats are prioritized prior to the lottery. The two groups given priority are siblings of current School Choice students and eighth-grade students enrolled in the Upper Township School District’s own School Choice program.
All students must meet all of the academic requirements: be enrolled in eighth grade, have scored 725 or higher for the seventh grade NJSLA Summative in math and ELA; academic grades of B (83) or higher in all academic courses in their final report card for seventh grade; and two letters of recommendation from academic teachers, counselors or administrators.
Social, perspective
benefits of Choice on
entire student body
Ocean City’s Interim Superintendent of Schools Terrence Crowley and Business Administrator Timothy E. Kelley said the value of bringing in Choice students from outside the area goes beyond the financial.
“Obviously the social mix,” Crowley said. “They may be similar but at least they are from difference communities, coming in and mixing with the Ocean City kids. I think that is a huge advantage … to the kids themselves,” he said.
“We’re in this little bubble here (on the island). It’s just bringing in those different kids with different perspectives and different personalities. And why not? We’re all in the same geographic area,” Crowley said. “It’s not like Margate is on the other side of the moon.
“I think that’s an advantage to our kids and to those (Choice) kids as well,” Crowley said.
“It’s that whole social aspect. It’s something I think our kids need and to a broader extent those kids need. It is mutually beneficial on the social realm as well,” he added.
“It’s benefiting your resident students who are here as well as the Choice students coming in,” Kelley said, “because they’re sharing experiences and perspectives they might not necessarily have if we didn’t have the program.”
“It just goes back to what Terry was saying. It provides that benefit of perspective,” Kelley said. “If a School Choice student comes in and is the valedictorian or the star athlete, when that Ocean City student goes out into the rest of world, when they leave the bubble, (they see) there are other people out there. It gives them that perspective.”
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff