Palmerton Area JHS

Palmerton Area JHS is one of the intimate middle schools in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, overseen by Palmerton Area SD, with 261 students on its rolls from grades 7 through 8. That puts it 56% below the typical public school in Pennsylvania, which averages around 594 students.

Palmerton Area SD comprises 5 schools with combined enrollment of 1,616 students; Palmerton Area JHS is among them.

On demographics, Palmerton Area JHS records that 89% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. The remainder looks like 8% Hispanic. That composition is broadly in line with Carbon County as a whole.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 20 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.0:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 13.2:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 48% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Carbon County runs at roughly 65%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat below the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Palmerton Area JHS tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 56.9% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 47.2%.

In the area at large, Carbon County reports that the typical household earns roughly $67,554 per year, about 19% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 8%. Palmerton Area JHS is one of 18 public schools in Carbon County (combined enrollment of about 8,111 students).

Nearest neighbor: Palmerton Area HS, around 0.0 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 7 other public schools cluster around Palmerton Area JHS. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Palmerton Area JHS at 4th of 8; the average score across the group is 53.1%.

The campus sits in a small-town setting.

Five-year trend. Palmerton Area JHS's enrollment has edged down 7% since 2018, when it stood at 281 (now 261). The White share of enrollment shrank from 94% to 89% over that span. Class-load math has tightened: from 15.0:1 in 2018 to 13.0:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.