Halsted Middle School

Halsted Middle School is a middle school of modestly sized scale in NEWTON, New Jersey, operated by Newton Public School District, instructing 280 students in grades 5 through 8. That puts it 52% smaller than the typical public school in New Jersey, which averages around 578 students.

Within Newton Public School District, which oversees 3 schools and 1,443 students, Halsted Middle School is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, Halsted Middle School shows that the most-represented group is Hispanic (45%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school reports 43% White, 9% Black. The wider county runs roughly 12% Hispanic, putting the school's mix considerably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Halsted Middle School shows 34 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 8.1:1. The state averages around 10.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Around 54% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Sussex County (around 23%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Halsted Middle School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 36.8%; this one delivers 34.0%.

Zooming out to the county, Sussex County reports that the typical household earns roughly $116,186 per year, about 40% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. In all, Sussex County runs 46 public schools (combined enrollment of about 19,579 students), of which Halsted Middle School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Newton High School, around 0.5 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Halsted Middle School comes 6th of 8 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 48.3%.

Halsted Middle School operates from a town-based location.

Five-year trend. Halsted Middle School's enrollment has ticked down 15% since 2018, when it stood at 329 (now 280). Over the same period, the Hispanic share increased from 22% to 45%. Class-load math has fell: from 10.4:1 in 2018 to 8.1:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, the feed for Halsted Middle School typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.