Camden School District wants to replace its Eastside High School
Several months after launching a $49 million renovation project for Eastside High School, Camden Superintendent Katrina McCombs announced plans to replace the school, if the state approves funding.
The Camden School District wants to replace its nearly century-old Eastside High School and build the second new public high school in the city after replacing Camden High in 2021.
Superintendent Katrina McCombs announced a $165 million proposal this week to build a school in East Camden as well as replace Yorkship Elementary. Both schools were built in the 1920s and need extensive repairs, she said.
The move is a shift for the district, which embarked on a $49 million face-lift for Eastside in November, believed to be the largest lump-sum federal investment ever in the economically disadvantaged school district.
McCombs said district officials now believe those renovations — with some preliminary work already started — would not be enough to bring the school up to standards. The school, renamed in 2022 by the board from Woodrow Wilson because of the segregationist views of the former U.S. president and New Jersey governor, was built in 1929 and is one of the oldest buildings in the district.
“We are excited about the prospect ... ,” McCombs told an advisory school board meeting. “There can be no doubt that our young people deserve that.”
In December, the state’s School Development Authority approved $120 million for replacing Yorkship and VeteransMemorial, two elementary schools in the city, under the state’s plan to improve schools in some of New Jersey’s neediest districts. The authority funds the projects to address serious facility deficiencies by replacing or renovating schools; it approved 19 projects statewide in 2022.
A state takeover district, Camden plans to seek approval from the state Department of Education to amend that plan. The biggest hurdle may be making a strong case to the School Development Authority for $45 million in additional funding to cover $105 million for replacing Eastside and $60 million to replace Yorkship. For Veterans Memorial, the $49 million in federal money allotted as part of the American Rescue Plan would be earmarked.
A spokesperson for the School Development Authority did not respond to messages seeking comment.
» READ MORE: New Camden High complex completed with a nod to its historic ‘castle on the hill’ past
In its appeal to the state, Camden must show that projected student enrollment will put both Eastside and Yorkship at or near capacity. Eastside currently has 517 students and Yorkship has 320. The district hopes to enroll students from the Freedom Prep Charter School, which is closing in June.
Details about the new schools, including a timeline for construction, have yet to be determined. It was unknown if the schools would be built on existing sites, which would lead to upheaval for students and staff who would be relocated during construction.
In a presentation Tuesday night at the advisory school board meeting, McCombs and school business administrator Ray Coxe outlined a proposal for a 203,000-square-foot Eastside that would include new computers, welding, performing arts and video labs, and additional self-contained special education classrooms.
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The below presentation includes details about the Eastside and Yorkship proposal on slides 6-19.
Eastside, the district’s remaining traditional high school, has fallen into serious disrepair.
McCombs said a walk-through at November’s renovations announcement revealed a greater need. Visitors gasped when the school principal pointed out a rusty science lab table that has been around about 90 years.
In September 2021, a sprawling new $133 million Camden High School complex opened in the city’s Parkside neighborhood. With a capacity for 1,200 students, it houses Camden High and three magnet schools — Brimm Medical Arts, Creative Arts, and the Big Picture Learning Academy.
Built with state funding, the new Camden High was years in the making to replace. During construction, its students were sent down the street to Hatch Middle School.
The old Camden High was a Gothic landmark razed in 2017 much to the dismay of some alumni and community leaders who waged an unsuccessful legal challenge to block demolition. The new building was the first entirely new high school constructed in Camden in 100 years.