Palmyra High School is a four-year comprehensivepublichigh school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Palmyra in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school of the Palmyra Public Schools. High school classes began shortly after the completion of the Spring Garden Street School in 1895; this building is on the National Register of Historic Places.[3] With increased enrollment, the school was moved to a former girls school, Berkeley Hall, in 1907, and to its own building in 1909. A large addition was completed in 1922. The 1909 structure was destroyed by fire in 1957, and after a vote that narrowly defeated establishing a regional high school, additions were made to the building in 1958 and 1961.
As of the 2023–24 school year, the school had an enrollment of 407 students and 33.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.0:1. There were 113 students (27.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 23 (5.7% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]
The school was the 260th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology.[5] The school had been ranked 222nd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 208th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[6] The magazine ranked the school 224th in 2008 out of 316 schools.[7] The school was ranked 275th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[8]
Schooldigger.com ranked the school 318th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 16 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (94.6%) and language arts literacy (97.9%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).[9]
In 2023, the school was awarded the Lighthouse Award by the Commissioner of Education, Angelica Allen-McMillan for "Increasing Equity in AP/IB Enrollment".[10]
Athletics
The Palmyra High School Panthers[2] compete in the Freedom division of the Burlington County Scholastic League (BCSL), a sports association operating under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) that is comprised of public and private high schools in Burlington, Mercer and Ocean counties in Central Jersey.[11][12] With 309 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2022–24 school years as Group I South for most athletic competition purposes.[13] The football team competes in the Classic Division of the 94-team West Jersey Football League superconference[14][15] and was classified by the NJSIAA as Group I South for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 185 to 482 students.[16]
The school mascot is currently the Panther, but at the time of the school's inception, its teams were known as the Red Devils.[17] This name was then changed to the Pals, which was used until the 1980s. The school colors have remained the same: red and white.[2]
Students competed in track and field as early as 1903, and in football by 1908. Palmyra's overall record in football, through the 2023 season, is 559 wins, 466 losses, and 49 ties. The team was declared the South Jersey Group II champion in 1946, 1947, 1948, 1951, and 1953; the Group III title was won in 1963, and Group I honors were won in 1971 and 1972. The team won the South Jersey Group I state sectional playoffs in 1978.[18] The Palmyra / Burlington City High School football rivalry for the Fred Wilbert Memorial Trophy, begun in 1908, is one of the oldest in South Jersey; Palmyra leads the series 57-50-12.[3] The game was not played in 2020; the first interruption since 1934, as Burlington City cancelled their fall sports season due to the pandemic. Palmyra won the renewal game in 2021 by the score of 25-20. The Palmyra / Riverside High School rivalry dates from 1928, and Palmyra leads that series 65-23-3; after a 50-24 victory in 2022; Palmyra has won 22 consecutive games in the series (no game was played in 2023).[19] The Palmyra High School football stadium was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1936 and was renovated to include lighting.[20]
The boys track team won the Group II spring / outdoor track state championship in 1942-1945, 1950, 1951, 1954-1956, and won the Group I title in 1979 and 1980. The program's 11 state titles are tied for fifth-most in the state.[21]
The boys' basketball team won the 1956 Group II state title, defeating runner-up Roselle Park High School by a score of 59-38 in the tournament final.[22][23]
The baseball team won the Group I state championship in 1973, defeating Cedar Grove High School in the tournament final.[24]
The Palmyra boys soccer team won their first South Jersey Group I state sectional championship in 1989 with a 1-0 win in double overtime against a Haddonfield Memorial High School team that came into the title game undefeated.[25] The team was the 2009 State Group I co-champion with Jonathan Dayton High School after the title game ended in a 0-0 tie.[26] The team won the South Jersey title, beating Pitman High School on penalty kicks in a 2-2 tie; they won the state semi-final in the same fashion, defeating Metuchen High School 4-1 on penalty kicks in a scoreless match. The boys won the 2023 South Jersey Group I championship by defeating Schalick, 2-1.[27]
The 2006 girls' soccer team won the South Jersey, Group I state sectional title with a 1-0 win against Woodstown High School in the tournament final, the team's first-ever title.[28][29]
The girls' basketball team won the 2007 South Jersey, Group I state sectional championship with a 46-37 win over Wildwood High School in the tournament final.[30] The team won their semifinal game in the Group I state championship tournament, defeating Highland Park High School 49-43, before falling to University High School in the championship game.[31]
The girls soccer team won the 2022 South Jersey Group I title, defeating Audubon High School in the tournament final by a score of 4-1 at the Palmyra stadium.[32]
Clarence Benjamin Jones (born 1931, class of 1949), lawyer and former personal counsel, advisor, draft speech writer and close friend of Martin Luther King Jr.[38] The Dr. Clarence B. Jones Institute for Social Advocacy was dedicated in his honor in June 2017[39]
^Home Page, West Jersey Football League. Accessed May 1, 2023. "The WJFL is a 94-school super conference that stretches from Princeton to Wildwood encompassing schools from the Colonial Valley Conference, the Burlington County Scholastic League, the Olympic Conference, the Tri-County Conference, the Colonial Conference, and the Cape Atlantic League. The WJFL is made up of sixteen divisions with divisional alignments based on school size, geography and a strength-of-program component."
^Athletics, Palmyra Public Schools. Accessed August 29, 2012. "In 1907 the Red Devils, Palmyra's football team, began its rivalry with Burlington City. This is the oldest school rivalry in Burlington County. Now we are known as the Palmyra Panthers, but the rivalry still exists as does Palmyra High School's fierce determination and drive to achieve both scholastic and athletic excellence."
^Lewis, John A. "High school football scouting report", Burlington County Times, November 12, 2020. Accessed November 21, 2020. "Palmyra at Riverside, 6 p.m.... This will be the 89th meeting of these teams, who battle annually for the Fred Wilbert Memorial Trophy. Palmyra has won the last 19 games and holds a 62-23-3 lead in the series."
^Palmyra High School Stadium, The Living New Deal. Accessed September 16, 2022. "Palmyra High School’s football stadium was originally constructed by the WPA in 1936, with a full grandstand, quarter mile cinder track, and football field with accompanying locker rooms."
^Carchidi, Sam. "Palmyra Wins Soccer Title In A Stunner Stops Haddonfield, 1-0, In Group 1 Play", The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 11, 1989. Accessed August 18, 2014. "After nearly 90 tense, scoreless minutes, yesterday's South Jersey Group 1 boys' soccer final appeared headed toward the dreaded penalty-kick shootout.... And Palmyra, on a stunning goal by Shaun Iversen with 30 seconds left in the second overtime, got its first soccer championship in the school's history, shocking previously undefeated Haddonfield, 1-0."
^Chappine, Phil; and Lewis, John A. "Defense does its share as Panthers make history", Burlington County Times, November 22, 2009. Accessed May 22, 2012. "NJSIAA Group 1 Boys Soccer Championship: Palmyra 0, Jonathan Dayton 0. Stat of the Game: Palmyra went over 220 minutes without allowing a goal to end the season."
^Narducci, Marc. "Total team effort leads Palmyra girls soccer past Audubon in SJ Group 1 championship", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, November 5, 2022. Accessed November 8, 2022. "It all added up to a 4-1 win over second seeded Audubon in the South Jersey Group 1 girls soccer championship. Palmyra (18-1-2) advances to Tuesday’s state Group 1 semifinal at Point Pleasant Beach, the Central Jersey champion."
^Principal's Page, Palmyra High School. Accessed September 22, 2024.
^Kenney, Bob. "'Pop' Vernon clinics still going strong", Courier-Post, March 28, 1982. Accessed August 17, 2020, via Newspapers.com. "He took a lanky youngster from nearby Delanco, Allen Bunge, and helped him become a star. The 6-9 Bunge led Riverside's biggest rival, Palmyra, to a state title in '56 and later was an All-American at Maryland and a first round NBA draft choice."
^Henry, Larry. "PHS graduate Kelvin Harmon excelling for North Carolina State Football", The Palmyra Sun, September 20, 2017. Accessed October 28, 2018. "In 2015, Kelvin Harmon was a senior at Palmyra High School taking the football field for one final season before his high school graduation."
^Johnson, Thomas A. "Man in the News", The New York Times, April 29, 1971. Accessed December 9, 2017. "When Mr. Jones was a boy the family moved to Palmyra, N. J., and he Went to Palmyra High School."
^Staff. "Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey: 1979 edition", p. 221. Fitzgerald's, 1979. Accessed September 30, 2016. "Assemblyman Schuck was born in Bridgeboro, March 1, 1929. He was graduated at Palmyra High School and attended Rutgers University College."
^Nowlin, Bill. Hal Wagner, Society for American Baseball Research. Accessed September 19, 2018. "Hal Wagner seems to have attended both Riverton High School and Palmyra High, graduating from Palmyra High in 1934, with letters in baseball and basketball."
