Pemberton Township High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from Pemberton Township, in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school of the Pemberton Township School District. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 2012Pemberton Township High School , Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools. Accessed February 8, 2018. as part of the first district in the state to receive accreditation for all of its schools.Zimmaro, Mark. "Pemberton schools receive Middle States accreditation", Burlington County Times, August 29, 2012. Accessed April 15, 2021. "Pemberton became the first district in the state to receive system-wide accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, which evaluates districts through a system protocol."
As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 972 students and 73.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.3:1. There were 345 students (35.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 132 (13.6% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Pemberton Township High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 15, 2026.
History A united high school for grades nine through twelve opened at the Arney's Mount Road site in 1990; the high school was previously split with grades 9 and 10 attending Pemberton High School No. 1 on Fort Dix Road (now the Helen A. Fort Middle School) and grades 11 and 12 attending school at the building then known as Pemberton High School No. 2.Wiggins, Ovetta. "Construction Delays Mean Some Schools Will Open Late", The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 2, 1990. Accessed June 1, 2016. "Pemberton Township is combining its two high schools, formerly called High School No. 1 and High School No. 2. Ninth and 10th graders, who would have attended Pemberton Township High School No. 1 on Fort Dix-Pemberton Road, will be attending Pemberton Township High School on Arney's Mount Road along with 11th and 12th graders. That school was formerly known as Pemberton Township High School No. 2."
In 1996, legislation signed into law would allow the Woodland Township School District to sever its sending/receiving relationship with the Pemberton Township School District and join the Lenape Regional High School District. Woodland Township had been sending about 30 students a year—and nearly $300,000 in tuition payments—to join the 1,350 students at Pemberton Township High School as part of a relationship that dated back to the 1920s. For years, the Pemberton district had refused Woodland Township's repeated requests to terminate the relationship.Wilson, David E. "Woodland youths may get to skip Pemberton High; Well, the way is clearer for them to go to Lenape Regional. Parents have yearned for that for years.", The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 1996. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Convinced that the Lenape Regional High School District can offer a better education for graduates of their elementary school, many parents want to end an almost 70-year relationship with Pemberton Township High School.... All that the Woodland educators needed to get started on the switch to Lenape was Pemberton's permission. But Pemberton officials, mindful of the negative publicity such a move would create and the $7,800 annual tuition payment for each graduate of Chatsworth Elementary School said 'no' every time.... Losing Woodland's students would be a financial loss for the Pemberton Township School District, which as a special-needs district already qualifies for additional state dollars. With the transfer of the Woodland students, the high school would lose about $300,000. About 1,350 students attend Pemberton Township High School." In May 1997, the Lenape district agreed to start accepting students from Woodland Township at Lenape High School starting with the 1997–98 school year and to add Woodland Township as the regional district's eight constituent municipality.Harbach, Louise. "Lenape district board lets Woodland in", The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 12, 1997. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "After years spent trying to sever its sending-receiving relationship with Pemberton Township, the Woodland Board of Education has finally gotten its wish: Come September, high school students from the sprawling 94-square-mile township deep in the Pinelands will attend school in the Lenape Regional High School District. Next year, about 15 Woodland students from the sparsely populated municipality will go to Lenape Regional High School, one of three high schools in the Lenape district, following a decision Tuesday by the Lenape school board. As a result of the Lenape board's decision, Woodland will be admitted as the eighth member of the regional district. Since 1958, Lenape has consisted of students from Evesham, Medford, Medford Lakes, Mount Laurel, Shamong, Southampton and Tabernacle." In 1996, the school's enrollment was 1,350. At the time the percentage of students who matriculated to community colleges or four-year universities was 55%.Wilson, David E. "Woodland youths may get to skip Pemberton High; Well, the way is clearer for them to go to Lenape Regional. Parents have yearned for that for years.", The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 1996. pp. BR1-2. Clipping from first page and second page. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com.
In 1999, as part of its efforts to discourage students from smoking, the Pemberton Township Council established fines for students caught smoking in school bathrooms, with fines assessed at $100 for a first offense and $200 for each additional incident.Kent, Bill. "In Brief; The Rising Cost of Smoking, And Getting Caught", The New York Times, February 28, 1999. Accessed September 7, 2011. "Students who are caught trying to steal a smoke in the Pemberton Township High School lavatories after March 18 will be hit with a $100 fine if it's the first time, $200 after that."
In 2014 the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression "awarded" Pemberton Principal Ida Smith a "Muzzle" for censoring student publications.Clark, Lesley. "White House 'awarded' for press freedom", McClatchy DC, April 10, 2014. Accessed August 11, 2014.Jefferson Muzzles 2014, Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. Accessed August 11, 2014.
Attendance area It is one of the two high schools which takes in high-school aged dependent students living-on post in these portions of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst: McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix. – This is a .mil site. The site explains there are three school district choices for McGuire and Dix. One of those districts is elementary-only, so logically the comprehensive high schools of the remaining two are the two choices.
Awards, recognition, and rankings The school was the 293rd-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.Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014. The school had been ranked 195th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 266th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed August 24, 2012. The magazine ranked the school 257th in 2008 out of 316 schools.Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed February 13, 2011. The school was ranked 277th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state."Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school as tied for 309th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (a decrease of 14 positions from the 2009 rank) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy and mathematics components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2009–2010, Schooldigger.com. Accessed January 20, 2012.
Pemberton Township High School won first place in the New Jersey High School Consumer Bowl Burlington County competition, held at the Palmyra Cove Nature Park and Environmental Center in Palmyra as part of the 10th annual New Jersey High School Consumer Bowl. Pemberton Township High School Takes First Place in Burlington County Consumer Bowl Competition, New Jersey Attorney General press release dated February 6, 2006 PTHS has won the statewide competition in 2000, 2003 and 2004.Past Consumer Bowl Winners, New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. Accessed May 14, 2012.
Pemberton Township High School Choral Music Department students have successfully auditioned into the National Association for Music Education All National Honors Mixed Chorus, New Jersey Music Educators Association All State Mixed Chorus and All State Women's Chorus as well South Jersey Choral Directors Association (SJCDA) Region III District Chorus.
Athletics The Pemberton Township High School HornetsPemberton Township High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. compete in the Burlington County Scholastic League, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Burlington, Mercer and Ocean counties in central New Jersey, operating under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020–2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. With 752 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 486 to 758 students in that grade range.NJSIAA General Public School Classifications 2019–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020. The football team competes in the Freedom Division of the 94-team West Jersey Football League superconferencePemberton Hornets, West Jersey Football League. Accessed May 1, 2023.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." and was classified by the NJSIAA as Group III South for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 695 to 882 students.NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2024–2026, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, updated September 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024. The school colors are dark green and white, and the school's mascot is the hornet.