Newburgh Enlarged City School District


The Newburgh Enlarged City School District is a public school district located in Newburgh, New York. It encompassed all of the City of Newburgh, and most of the Towns of Newburgh and New Windsor. The enrollment is 12,791 students in 13 schools in grades K-12. The district superintendent is Dr. Robert Padilla, who was hired in February 2011 to replace Ralph Pizzo, who retired in June 2014.

Schools

Pre-K

Most other elementary schools also provide Pre-K

Elementary

[Newburgh Free Academy]

Student Body
As of 2012 56% percent of students were eligible for free lunch and 10% qualified for reduced price lunch.
14% of students are considered "Limited English Proficient"

History

As was the case with most rural upstate towns in New York, a series of schoolhouses sprang up throughout Newburgh in the 19th century, in response to the state laws of 1812 and 1814 requiring the establishment of such schools and school districts. The number of these rural school districts in New York peaked statewide at 11,750 in 1865.
New York state legislation required that the administration of schools would be in the hands of school districts — not the counties or towns, as is the case in 20 other states. This system of school districts totally independent of municipal or county governments remains in place throughout all of New York today.

An 1875 map on display at Town Hall indicates that at that time 14 different school districts existed in Newburgh, each of which had its own schoolhouse, each of which elected its own school board, and each of which hired its own teachers. As late as the mid 1950s, it was common in the town for one teacher to teach more than one grade in one classroom.
In the post World War II era, with the first explosion in population in the town as well as with "Baby boomers" beginning their schooling, the need came about for larger and more modern school buildings. During the 1950s, new elementary schools were built in Balmville, Gardnertown, East Coldenham, Leptondale and Union Grove. Fostertown School retained its older building, but the first of several modern additions was constructed in 1957.
Each of these elementary schools had their own locally elected school boards. Each had clearly defined boundaries which determined which elementary school each student would attend. Attendance at high school was not universal prior to World War II, but after that time most Newburgh students attended the two junior high schools and one high school in the city of Newburgh.
From 1925 on, New York encouraged school districts to consolidate and approved legislation, featuring the incentive of state financial aid, to facilitate this. However, as late as 1960, there were still nine elementary school districts, and nine elementary schools, in the town.
The following are the nine school districts as they existed in 1960:
In 1963, the Newburgh Enlarged City School District was formed. It consisted of the entire city of Newburgh and most of the town of New Windsor. In addition, it absorbed the following school districts within the town of Newburgh: Balmville, Orange Lake, Fostertown, Gardnertown, and Union Grove. At the same time, the Newburgh Enlarged City School District absorbed several elementary school districts in the Town of New Windsor, to the south.
The Newburgh Enlarged City School District took over ownership and management of the five elementary schools in the town of Newburgh absorbed by the school district as well as those in the Town of New Windsor. In addition, town of Newburgh and New Windsor students for the first time attended the junior high schools of the Newburgh Enlarged City School District and NFA without any special tuition having to be paid. Residents of these portions of the towns were afforded full privileges at the Newburgh Free Library free of charge.