Temporary classrooms house students

Trailors hold surplus of students

By: Lacey Korevec
   MONROE — When students marched into school Wednesday, many found themselves in temporary classrooms.
   The number of temporary classrooms in use at Monroe schools this year is more than double the number used last year, according to school Business Administrator Wayne Holiday.
   On Aug. 28, Mr. Holiday said that 30 new units were installed for the start of the 2006-2007 school year, bringing the total used this year to 57. The trailers are needed to help accommodate the district’s growing enrollment.
   Brookside Elementary School received the most units, he said, with eight being added, bringing the school’s total to 20.
   Applegarth, Barclay Brook and Monroe Township High School also received the temporary units. Applegarth now has 17 units, up from eight last year, Barclay Brook has 12 units, up from six last year, and the high school has eight, up from three last year.
   There are no units at either the Woodland or Mill Lake schools.
   This district has about 5,000 students enrolled for this school year, Superintendent Ralph Ferrie announced at a meeting Aug. 30.
   At the end of the 2004-2005 school year, the district had 4,371 students enrolled. At the end of last year, the district had 4,676 students.
   Increasing enrollment is the reason the district has needed to add so many more trailers this summer, Mr. Holiday said. As of Monday, Aug. 28, the district had enrolled a total of 110 new students in August alone.
   He said a new elementary school will eventually ease the crunch.
   Voters approved a $26.8-million referendum in January allowing the school to build a new elementary school on a 30-acre parcel on Applegarth Road, which the township donated to the district in September 2005. It is scheduled to open in 2008 as a kindergarten- through sixth-grade building.
   A new high school was approved by voters in a $89.2-million referendum in December 2003 and is scheduled to open in 2011.
   When it does, the new elementary school will house students in kindergarten through second grade. The current high school will then become a middle school, and Applegarth Middle School will turn into a third- through sixth-grade facility.
   "If the new elementary school, which is slated to open in September of 2008, if that opens on time, that will slow the need for additional trailers," he said. "But the trailers that are out there now will remain."