Schools Behind in Computer Access

While the township’s public schools scored well in areas such as graduation rates, college attendance and student-to-administrator ratio, most fell significantly short of the state average for student-to-computer ratio.

“Over the years—every year, unfortunately—there have been budget cuts, and less state aid to be used,” said John F. Golden, acting superintendent of the Black Horse Pike Regional School District. “This requires us to find ways to support the district in terms of personnel, supplies and equipment. What we’ve been doing, right or wrong, is cutting back on equipment to save teaching positions.”

The state Department of Education (DOE) on Tuesday released its annual report cards, which are issued for all traditional public and charter schools in New Jersey.

The report cards are intended to reflect the yearly progress made by school districts and their schools. The document provides statistical reports of all schools in terms of school environment, student information, student performance indicators, and district and charter financial information.  

The computer-availability issue appeared to affect most of the township’s schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

Of the 11 public elementary and middle schools that comprise the Gloucester Township Public Schools district, only two met or surpassed the state’s average ratio of 3.6 students for each computer. Charles W. Lewis Middle School had a ratio of three students per computer, which is superior to the state average, while Gloucester Township Elementary was equal to the state average with 3.6 students per computer.

All three high schools in the Black Horse Pike Regional School District (BHPRSD)—Highland, Triton and Timber Creek—fell well short of the state’s student-to-computer ratio of 3.1 to one.

According to BHPRSD curriculum director Brian Repici, cuts in state aid for 2009-10, as well as for the current school year, have had a significant impact on both staffing and equipment funds.

“Since we had to cut over $4 million from our school operating budget in two years, staffing was reduced and the fund to purchase computers was reduced to zero amount,” Repici said. “We have only supported the purchase of computers through grant funding this year.”

This year, the state changed the criterion for the student-to-computer ratio to include only “instructional, multimedia-capable computers that have manufacture dates after July 1, 2006, and that are available for supervised instruction,” according to the DOE press release. Computers manufactured before that date are considered outdated, and were not included in the ratio.

Golden noted that BHPRSD has many computers that, while manufactured prior to 2006, have been upgraded since that time and are fully functional for academic purposes.

“These computers are Internet-capable, they’ve been upgraded, and have all the functions a student needs to do work or online research,” he said. “Do they have all the latest bells and whistles? No. But they’re fully operational.”

The district is currently in the process of acquiring new computers for Timber Creek, Golden said, and plans to purchase more in the future. However, he said the school continues to prioritize retaining staff over technology.

“We don’t like having to make these decisions,” he said. “But we’d rather have a teacher in the room than a new computer.”

According to Anthony Petruzzelli, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Gloucester Township Public Schools, the student-to-computer ratio is due primarily to the large student population.

“I think that is a function simply of the size of our district,” he said. “We’re a very large district compared to most. For us to have a ratio of 3.6 to one at our size, we’d have to have eight or nine computers in each classroom. Frankly, I don’t think we would need that many.”

Petruzzelli said he is happy with the district’s student-to-computer ratio. He added that although the state’s ratio is based on total enrollment, there has never been a situation in which the entire student population has had to compete for use of the district’s computers.

“When our students need computer access, they have it,” he said. “I am very content with our computer availability.”

Petruzelli also pointed out that unlike in previous years, the number of computers alone is not the full measure of a school’s technological advancement.

“There was a time when computers were considered the sole defining piece of technology,” he said. “I think that’s changed. Now we have interactive whiteboards, document cameras and other technology that isn’t counted in these reports. We also have some teachers who have laptops, so they don’t have to be tethered to their desks.”

Petruzelli said he would like to see an improvement in class size, which was another area in which many of the district’s schools did not match up with the state average.

“Our class size is definitely a concern,” he said, “especially in these fiscal times, when we’re trying to account for every penny that we can.”

Petruzzelli said the K-8 district is working to reduce class sizes—something made difficult with budget cuts and staff layoffs.

“We want to keep a responsible class size,” he said. “Class size has a huge impact on a teacher’s effect on students.”

Petruzzelli said in this type of situation, the school’s approach in the past—and most likely in the future—is to prioritize class sizes according to student needs.

“For example, in our K-8 district, our 13-year-olds can handle sharing the teacher’s attention more than the 6-year-olds,” he said. “That would force us to impact classes at the 7th and 8th grade levels.”

Golden said his district has also seen its class sizes increase due to budget cuts. He said one potential future approach may be to cut administrative costs.

“I think most of the public feels that if you’re going to reduce costs, you should reduce administrative costs,” he said.

The three high schools did, however, show strengths and improvements in several areas, according to the data.

“We have reduced the number of suspensions, increased the number of students going to college, and exceed the state average relative to graduation rates,” Repici said.

The graduation rates for the BHPRSD also reflected an improvement from the 2009-10 school year. Dropout rates were below the state average in two of the three high schools.

“What the public doesn’t see is that the district has improved student access to advanced-placement courses,” Repici said. “Consequently, since 2007-2008, we have seen a 21 percent increase in the number of students taking AP exams.”

Petruzzelli said he is pleased with his district’s overall scores, particularly in the area of administrator-to-student ratio.

“I’m always happy to see that our student/administrator ratio is so much better than the state average,” he said. “We pride ourselves on having one of the lowest administrative costs in the state.”

Petruzzelli did note that he would like to see the district’s school day lengthened, adding that the district is 30 minutes behind the state average.

“The more time you have with the students, the better,” he said.

See below for charts with each Gloucester Township schools' students-to-computer ratio for 2009-10.

To view the full report card for the two township districts' schools, as well as others in the state, visit education.state.nj.us/rc/rc10/index.html.