Mountain Lakes Schools

The Mountain Lakes Schools is a comprehensive community public school district that serves students in kindergarten through twelfth grade from Mountain Lakes, in Morris County, New Jersey, United States.

Mountain Lakes Schools
Address
400 Boulevard Mountain Lakes, NJ 07046 United States
Coordinates	40.886022°N 74.453905°W / 40.886022; -74.453905
District information
Grades	K-12
Superintendent	Dr. Beth Azar (acting)[1]
Business administrator	Carol Delsandro[1]
Schools	4
Students and staff
Enrollment	1,429 (as of 2017-18)[2]
Faculty	150.4 FTEs[2]
Student–teacher ratio	9.5:1[2]
Other information
District Factor Group	J
Website	https://www.mlschools.org
Ind. Per pupil District spending Rank (*) K-12 average %± vs. average 1A Total Spending $23,989 48 $18,891 27.0% 1 Budgetary Cost 20,102 49 14,783 36.0% 2 Classroom Instruction 11,953 49 8,763 36.4% 6 Support Services 3,400 45 2,392 42.1% 8 Administrative Cost 1,845 38 1,485 24.2% 10 Operations & Maintenance 2,268 48 1,783 27.2% 13 Extracurricular Activities 621 40 268 131.7% 16 Median Teacher Salary 79,732 48 64,043 Data from NJDoE 2014 Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending.[3] *Of K-12 districts with up to 1,800 students. Lowest spending=1; Highest=49

As of the 2017-18 school year, the district and its four schools had an enrollment of 1,429 students and 150.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 9.5:1.[2]

The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "J", the 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.[4]

Students from Boonton Township attend the district's high school as part of a sending/receiving relationship.[5]

Awards and recognition

Briarcliff Middle School was one of nine public schools recognized in 2017 as Blue Ribbon Schools by the United States Department of Education.[6]

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2017-18 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[7]) are:[8][9][10]

Elementary schools

• Wildwood Elementary School[11] for grades K-5 (462 students)
  • Bob Reid, Acting Principal

Middle school

• Briarcliff Middle School[12] for grades 6-8 (302 students)
  • Erik Carlson, Principal

High school

• Mountain Lakes High School[13] for grades 9-12 (680 students)
  • Frank Sanchez, Principal
  • Kevin Pfister, Assistant Principal

Ungraded

• Lake Drive School (69 students), which serves as a regional school for deaf and hard of hearing students from birth through high school, with students from nearly 100 communities in 12 New Jersey counties.[14]
  • Julie Lazeration, Principal

The district's high school was the 7th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 328 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2012 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 9th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[15]

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:[9][16]

• Dr. Beth Azar, Acting Superintendent
• Carol Delsandro, Business Administrator / Board Secretary

References

1. Cohen, Michael. "Mountain Lakes school board buys out Mucci's contract", The Citizen of Morris County, November 22, 2019. Accessed December 18, 2019. "Anne Mucci is no longer the superintendent of schools for the K-12 district. The Board of Education accepted Mucci’s resignation during a meeting of the Board on Nov. 18 following a settlement agreement that was reached by both sides.... Since Mucci’s leave of absence, Beth Azar moved into the role of Acting Superintendent after spending the past nine years as Wildwood Elementary School Principal.... She has appointed a new Assistant Superintendent in Sumit Bangia, and she is also working closely with a new Business Administrator in Carol Delsandro who took over for H. Ronald Smith."
2. District information for Mountain Lakes Public School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 1, 2019.
3. Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending April 2013, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed April 15, 2013.
4. NJ Department of Education District Factor Groups (DFG) for School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed March 3, 2015.
5. Boonton Township School District 2015 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed June 6, 2016. "The Boonton Township School District has one school, Rockaway Valley School, which houses a PreK through Grade 8 program for approximately 450 children. The district maintains a send-receive relationship with the neighboring Mountain Lakes School District, whereby our students attend Mountain Lakes High School."
6. "Nine New Jersey Public Schools Earn National Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education", New Jersey Department of Education, September 28, 2017. Accessed October 18, 2017.
7. School Data for the Mountain Lakes Schools, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 1, 2019.
8. Schools, Mountain Lakes Schools. Accessed December 18, 2019.
9. Contact Information, Mountain Lakes Schools. Accessed December 18, 2019.
10. New Jersey School Directory for the Mountain Lakes Schools, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 29, 2016.
11. Wildwood Elementary School, Mountain Lakes Schools. Accessed December 18, 2019.
12. Briarcliff Middle School, Mountain Lakes Schools. Accessed December 18, 2019.
13. Mountain Lakes High School, Mountain Lakes Schools. Accessed December 18, 2019.
14. Lake Drive School, Mountain Lakes Schools. Accessed December 18, 2019.
15. Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed March 3, 2015.
16. New Jersey School Directory for Morris County, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 29, 2016.

External links

• Mountain Lakes Schools
• Mountain Lakes Schools's 2015–16 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
• School Data for the Mountain Lakes Schools, National Center for Education Statistics