Walter Panas High School, Cortlandt Manor NY

Original Research by School Decision on Walter Panas High School

Walter Panas High School serves grades nine through twelve in Cortlandt Manor as a regular public school within the Lakeland Central School District. The school enrolls roughly nine hundred students across its four grade levels, with enrollment distributed fairly evenly from ninth through twelfth grade.

The student body is diverse. About half of students identify as white, with the next largest shares identifying as Hispanic and Black. Asian students, students identifying as two or more races, and Native American and Pacific Islander students together make up a smaller share. About one-third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a proxy for lower family income. The data available does not report the school's English learner population or students with Individualized Education Programs, so a parent seeking detail on those supports should contact the school directly.

State assessment results were not available for this school, which means the data set does not include proficiency rates in English language arts, mathematics, or other tested subjects. The school's four-year graduation rate and chronic absenteeism rate also do not appear in the available records. These gaps may reflect the timing or structure of how New York reports school-level data, and a parent would benefit from asking the school and district for recent performance dashboards and outcome reports to fill that picture.

The school occupies a community where housing has been active. The median home value in the Cortlandt Manor zip code is substantial, and the market has seen inventory fluctuations; homes have been spending less time on the market recently compared to a year prior. Mortgage rates remain elevated. The county's median household income is healthy, and unemployment is modest, painting a picture of a solidly middle-to-upper-middle-income region, though some variation exists within the school's enrollment.

The Lakeland Central School District, of which Walter Panas is the high school, recently completed a major capital project that modernized learning spaces across the district. New STEAM labs and renovated library media centers are now in use at the secondary schools, along with infrastructure and energy upgrades funded through a construction campaign publicly described as tax-neutral. For the current budget year, the district approved a tax levy increase at the state-permitted ceiling, signaling an upward property-tax trajectory that families should understand as they weigh long-term costs of residency in the community.

Program offerings, detailed course access, staffing levels, and specific discipline or attendance policies were not provided in the available data. A parent should request the school's program guide and speak with counselors about course breadth, career and technical pathways, and extracurricular options to complete a full picture of what Walter Panas offers day-to-day. The school's website may carry much of that detail, or direct outreach to the school can fill gaps the data does not address.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

How students graduate and prepare for what comes next.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

90-94%Cohort of 199 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,253 schools plotted. 14 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Advanced Placement & IB

21 subjects offered · 2023-24

Each card is one AP or IB subject. The headline number is the share of students scoring 3 or higher on the exam — the threshold for college credit at most universities. The bar below each rate shows the underlying distribution across performance levels.

Score:12· no credit345· extremely well qualified

Math and Computer Science

Calculus AB

15 tested

60.0%

scored 3 or higher

Calculus BC

11 tested

63.6%

scored 3 or higher

Computer Science Principles

1 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Statistics

25 tested

80.0%

scored 3 or higher

Sciences

Biology

50 tested

82.0%

scored 3 or higher

Chemistry

35 tested

82.9%

scored 3 or higher

Environmental Science

15 tested

86.7%

scored 3 or higher

Physics 1

36 tested

44.4%

scored 3 or higher

Physics 2

2 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Physics C: Mechanics

2 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

History and Social Sciences

Human Geography

29 tested

65.5%

scored 3 or higher

Macroeconomics

54 tested

46.3%

scored 3 or higher

Psychology

51 tested

68.6%

scored 3 or higher

U.S. History

57 tested

94.7%

scored 3 or higher

World Languages and Cultures

Italian Language and Culture

1 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Spanish Language and Culture

30 tested · Grade 10

76.7%

scored 3 or higher

Arts

Studio Art Drawing

6 tested

66.7%

scored 3 or higher

Other

Language and Comp

97 tested

79.4%

scored 3 or higher

Literature and Comp

37 tested

94.6%

scored 3 or higher

Studio Art 2d Design

10 tested

60.0%

scored 3 or higher

World History

54 tested · Grade 10

61.1%

scored 3 or higher

New York Regents Exams

3 courses reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Ela	238	87.0%
Social Studies	227	91.0%
Science	198	81.0%

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.