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.

Student Body (as of 2012)

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"

As was the case with most rural upstate towns in New York, a series of schoolhouses (in most cases, one room) 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 (except for New York City) today.

(In the mid-1930s, the City of Newburgh built and opened its first Junior High Schools, one for 7th to 9th Grade students living north of Broadway and/or First Streets, and another for students living south of that geography. Today, these schools have become "Middle Schools" in the N. E. S. D., for all intents and purposes.)

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 the town began the transition from rural to suburban) 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.

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