Computer science cut, and the board was given the wrong number

What happened

Computer science was dropped from Collingswood High School's course list. Administrators told the board in February 2026 that only twelve students were in the programme, that the instructor resigned because the numbers were low, and that it would not come back on an alternate-year rotation. In March the high school counselling team formally corrected the record in public: the programme had 64 students enrolled in 2024-25 and counsellors had to delete 52 registrations when told it would not run, so twelve was a vast understatement. A student petition gathered about 110 signatures, including roughly 80 from students at a school of about 613. Counsellors also read out course-request counts for other cut or paused subjects, including 192 for digital photography and 115 for child development, and said the cuts came well before the budget crisis. For 2026-27 a computer science pathway returns, but taught online through a software provider with an assigned teacher in the room rather than a subject teacher.

Why it matters to families

Course lists decide what a student can actually study, and families told the board directly that this one was why they had chosen Collingswood over a vocational school. The dispute also matters on its own terms: the board voted on the programme of studies after being given a student count that its own counsellors say was wrong by a factor of five. Separately, the district's earlier attempt at online courses did not work: administrators conceded that running AP Calculus, AP Spanish and AP Physics online in 2025-26 went badly and that students dropped out.

The evidence

The February 26, 2026 recording contains administrators telling the board computer science was cut because only twelve students were in the programme, that the instructor resigned over the low numbers, and that it would not return on a rotation. The March 23, 2026 recording contains the counselling team's correction, that the programme had 64 students in 2024-25 and 52 registrations were deleted, and that twelve is a vast understatement, together with the course-request counts for other subjects and the student petition figures. The June 16, 2026 recording records the new online computer science pathway with an assigned teacher in the room and the admission that the earlier virtual AP courses did not work out well.

The source