The J. Harvey Rodgers School, located at the corner of Yale and Dickinson Roads in Glassboro, New Jersey, stands as both a tribute to our community’s history and a foundation for its future.

The school is named in honor of J. Harvey Rodgers, a devoted educator and Pennsylvania native who earned his teaching degree from Franklin and Marshall College. He began his career teaching in Pennsylvania before moving to Glassboro, where he started as a teacher and quickly rose through the ranks. He served as Principal of Glassboro High School, where he met his wife, a fellow educator from Bridgeton, New Jersey, and later became Supervising Principal of the entire Glassboro School System. In 1933, he was appointed Gloucester County Superintendent of Schools. Mr. Rodgers and his family lived on Villanova Road in the Ridge section of Glassboro. He passed away in 1955, leaving behind a legacy of educational excellence, which the school proudly honors by bearing his name.

During the 1950s, as Glassboro’s population grew, so did the need for additional educational facilities. The baseball field at Yale and Dickinson was chosen as the site for a new neighborhood school to serve the expanding Ridge community. The J. Harvey Rodgers School was officially dedicated in 1957. Teachers from the former Academy Street School transferred to the new building and worked tirelessly over the 1957 holiday break to prepare for its January opening. The school originally served students from kindergarten through sixth grade, with two kindergarten classes and one class per grade thereafter. In its inaugural year, one teacher even served as both principal and classroom instructor.

Today, the J. Harvey Rodgers School serves all of Glassboro’s preschool and kindergarten students and is no longer limited to a single neighborhood. Following a major expansion in 2000 and 2001, the school now includes 18 classrooms, a gymnasium, and a cafeteria. The school is dedicated to supporting the youngest learners, ages three to six, by offering a nurturing, developmentally appropriate environment that helps ease the transition from home to school. With a caring staff and a child-centered approach, Rodgers continues to be a place where lifelong learning begins.