Lower Camden County Regional School District

The Lower Camden County Regional School District was a regional public school district serving students in seventh through twelfth grades in Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The district served the constituent communities of Berlin Township, Chesilhurst, Clementon, Lindenwold, Pine Hill, Waterford Township and Winslow Township. In a referendum held in May 1998, voters approved the dissolution of the district.[1]

Schools in the district included:

  • Edgewood Junior High School and Edgewood Regional High School in Winslow Township, serving Chesilhurst, Waterford Township and Winslow Township
  • Overbrook Junior High School in Lindenwold, serving Berlin Township, Clementon, Lindenwold, Pine Hill and Winslow Township
  • Lower Camden County Regional High School / Overbrook Senior High School in Pine Hill, serving Berlin Township, Clementon, Lindenwold and Pine Hill

History

[edit]

The school district was established in 1938, after a referendum in which Chesilhurst, Clementon, Lindenwold, Pine Hill and Winslow Township voted to join and both Berlin Township and Waterford Township opted out. Lower Camden County Regional High School opened in October 1939, four months earlier than expected, with an enrollment of 700 students, after having been constructed at a cost of $575,000 (equivalent to $12.6 million in 2023), of which $258,000 was covered by a grant from the Public Works Administration. Prior to the school's opening, about a third of students had attended Hammonton High School.[2] It served students from up to ten municipalities at one point. The population soon began to grow, however, and Edgewood Regional High School (now Winslow Township High School) was founded in Winslow Township. The original school took the name Overbrook Regional Senior High School in the 1950s, and joined its sister school Edgewood as part of the district.

After further expansion of the school district, in 1969 the building was renamed Overbrook Regional Junior High School. Following the dissolution of the district, students from Waterford Township began attending Hammonton High School as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Hammonton Public Schools.[3] Overbrook High School, part of the Pine Hill Schools, serves students from Pine Hill, with Berlin Township and Clementon participating in sending / receiving relationships. Lindenwold High School opened in September 2001 to serve students from the borough[4]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "re Board of Education of the Town of Hammonton, Atlantic County", New Jersey Department of Education, January 4, 2000. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  2. ^ "Regional School Begins Term Today Ahead of Schedule; 713 Pupils Register in New Lower Camden County High at Lindenwold", Courier-Post, October 9, 1939. Accessed May 30, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "With a registration of 713, the new $575,000 Lower Camden County Regional High School opened this morning, four months ahead of schedule."
  3. ^ Mark, Jason. "Students arrive for the first day of Spirits high at Hammonton High opening", Courier-Post, September 6, 2002. Accessed April 3, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Kopakowski's 'new car' is a 196,000-square-foot, $33 million facility on 116 acres of farmland on the White Horse Pike. The school is home to more than 1,200 students from Hammonton and Waterford in Camden County. After the dissolution of the Lower Camden County School District last year, Waterford was stuck with tough decisions: send its students to Winslow Township High School (formerly Edgewood) or build a high school of its own. Or it could join Hammonton in Atlantic County and contribute to the building of the new school, which is what the township chose."
  4. ^ Colon, Vanessa. "New year, new school for Lindenwold students", Courier-Post, September 11, 2001. Accessed April 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "At 7:30 a.m. Monday, 630 students at the newly constructed Lindenwold High School were in their homeroom classes shifting through school maps. Like many of the 5,500 former pupils in the disbanded Lower Camden County Regional School District, these students had to find their way around a new school."