Washington is off to a good start, but growth is still an issue
Mark Setaro
”It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
You’ve heard the jingle referring to the start of the school year. This year was no exception to being a wonderful time and kudos go out to all of the administrators throughout the Washington Township School District for a successful school opening.
Special thanks go out to the Washington Township Department of Public Works , as well as Mayor Dave Fried and the Township Council for their ongoing cooperation and assistance to maintaining the school grounds. For the past several months, the Board of Education has been working on a shared services basis with the township to maintain the school facilities, in exchange for providing some technical assistance to the township. This cooperative effort was put into high gear for the two weeks leading up to the opening of school when the Township public works department DPW put in the extra time necessary to insure all school grounds where clean and ready. An interlocal services agreement will soon be formalized between the township and the school district to memorialize this relationship. It’s a win, win, and win for the township, the school district and ultimately the taxpayers who will reap the tax savings through the consolidation of certain essential services.
between the Township and the School District. The school enrollment figures are in, and once again, we are experiencing significant growth in our school age population. A total of 2,590 students are attending school in the district, and the breakdown for the three schools is as follows: 907 at Sharon School; 1,035 at Pond Road Middle School; and 648 at RHS. Modular classrooms have already been installed at Sharon to handle the overflow of students, and Pond Road has just about reached capacity before additional classroom space will be necessary. With the class sizes currently coming up through the next four years, RHS will easily exceed 800 students by the time we have a class of 2012 entering the high school.
In order to accommodate our future growth, and avoid having our children attend class in makeshift facilities, a task force is in place to review our building options and consider a referendum for a new school in Washington Township. Consideration for a new school referendum is given to not only the site of the proposed building, but also the type and configuration of school facility. With both Sharon and Pond schools at capacity, we will clearly need to relieve both buildings of at least one class to avoid future overcrowding.
The task force is open to anyone in the township, and the Board of Education welcomes the comments and ideas of all citizens as we explore our building options. Please visit our Web site at www.wtpsmercer.k12.nj.us for the latest information and future meeting notices.
Mark Setaro is president of the Washington Township Board of Education.

