Controversy
The primary controversy with the Academies is its location on the Dwight Morrow High School campus. The South building was taken away from Dwight Morrow High in 2002 to establish the Academies and the two schools also share a single auditorium and gymnasium. This left Dwight Morrow High with only the North Building and fewer available classrooms. Residents in the City of Englewood have expressed feelings of anger in allowing the Academies to operate on the campus; newspapers such as the The Record have quoted residents accusing the Academies of being a racist institution, regardless of the fact that there are many African American and Hispanic students in the Academies @ Englewood and the Academies @ Englewood were created to reintegrate Dwight Morrow which was the subject of years of white flight.
The Englewood Board of Education has repeatedly attempted in various ways to integrate the two schools, but that task has been proven difficult due to many issues. The original idea in bringing the Academies to Dwight Morrow High School campus was to diversify the student body of Dwight Morrow while setting a higher standing for education in the entire district. The campus itself has been diversified, but the two schools are kept almost completely separate. Until recently, the schools shared only classes such as electives, music, art, and gym, but from the school year of 2006-07 onward, they now operate on the same day schedule and many students share core classes. However, if the Academies @ Englewood are not included as part of the Dwight Morrow High School student body the school still remains overwhelmingly minority, about 98% black and Hispanic.
A 2005 report by the New Jersey Department of Education documented the continuing segregation between the Academies and Dwight Morrow, with African-American and Latino enrollment in the Academies declining each year, despite the stated goal of achieving greater minority balance.
Read more about this topic: Dwight Morrow High School
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