Tamaqua, PA: Tamaqua Area School District

The entire borough of Tamaqua, PA is under the educational administration of the Tamaqua Area School District, a public school district located in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The district is centered on the borough of Tamaqua and Rush Township, Walker Township, Schuylkill Township, and the West Penn Township.

The whole district covers an area of exactly 123 square miles. Based on the Federal Census Data of 2000, the district was able to serve a resident population of 17,042. For the school year 2007-2008, district officials revealed that the Tamaqua Area School District provided basic education services to more than two thousand pupils, courtesy of the employment force comprised of 164 teachers, 101 support personnel, both full time and part time, and 21 administrators. For the school year 2009-2010, the Tamaqua Area School District provided basic educational services to exactly 2,076 pupils. The district likewise received almost $11 million in state funding for the same school year.

In the present day, the Tamaqua Area School District manages three elementary schools namely Tamaqua Elementary School, West Penn Elementary School, and Rush Elementary School. The district also operates one middle school and one high school.

District Governance

The district is currently governed by nine board members who are locally elected to serve four year terms, in working relationship with the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

Meanwhile, the federal government is the one that controls the programs it also funds. This includes Title I funding for low income kids in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the “No Child Left Behind Act,” which requires the Tamaqua Area School District to focus resources on student success with respect to the acquisition of skills both in mathematics and reading.

Achievements

The Tamaqua Area School District was given the rank 320th out of the 497 Pennsylvania school districts in 2013, by the Pittsburgh Business Times. According to the publication, the ranking is based on the student academic performance of the last three years of PSSA results in four subject categories, reading, mathematics, writing, and science.

High School

The Tamaqua Area High School is located at 500 Penn Street. Based on a 2010 report from the National Center for Education Statistics, the school had an enrollment of 661 pupils from grades 9th to 12th and 158 pupils were eligible for federal free and/or reduced price lunch. The school has 35 teaches with a student-teacher ratio of 18:1.