Based on projections provided by the Marlboro K-8 School District’s demographer, enrollment will decrease for the 2009-10 school year, Assistant Superintendent Marc Gaswirth reported to Marlboro Board of Education members at a Nov. 11 workshop meeting.
Gaswirth said the estimate for the 2009- 10 school year is a total of 5,993 students in Marlboro’s eight schools. On Oct. 15, enrollment was 6,024 resident students in the district. He said the expectation going forward is that the district will continue to drop between 40 and 50 students each year.
Gaswirth said one reason for the expected decrease in enrollment is that the number of students in grades six through eight is larger than the number of students who are coming in at the kindergarten and first-grade levels. Enrollment numbers are relatively low in comparison to what the district has seen in past years, he said.
The comparison of enrollment numbers between the district’s two middle schools is expected to narrow in the 2009-10 school year. The difference is expected to be about 24 students between the Marlboro Middle School, Route 520, and the Marlboro Memorial Middle School, Nolan Road.
There are currently 1,130 pupils in the Marlboro Middle School and 1,044 pupils in the Marlboro Memorial Middle School, according to district officials.
Gaswirth said in order to determine the numbers going forward for both middle schools, administrators will have to monitor the enrollment at the Frank Defino Central School and the Robertsville School. He said the trend looks to have the middle schools’ enrollment getting closer in the coming years.
Administrators are hoping to see the enrollment begin to decrease at the Marlboro Memorial Middle School in about three years, he told the board. The school is said to be able to comfortably accommodate 900 pupils.
Special education enrollment is always an unknown, Gaswirth said, but the expectation is for the self-contained class numbers to remain relatively constant.
It was noted that administrators will have to monitor kindergarten enrollment, which could be affected by the current economic climate — people opting for public school kindergarten as opposed to paying tuition for private school kindergarten.
The Marlboro Early Learning Center houses all of the district’s kindergartners. Marlboro offers half-day kindergarten sessions. Some parents opt to pay for full-day, private school kindergarten, but dealing with job loss could force some parents to turn to the public school kindergarten sessions, according to the administration.
Board member Joseph Waldman said he could see the opposite happening. With the economy in a slowdown, both parents may have to go to work, which might lead parents to opt to place their child in a full-day, private school kindergarten, he said.
Officials said time will tell what, if any, impact will be seen on the enrollment of the school district’s kindergarten classes.
Superintendent of Schools David Abbott updated board members on the space issues affecting Marlboro’s schools. He said with enrollment increasing at the Marlboro Memorial Middle School, space is becoming limited in the building. He said administrators are hoping that as the years progress the school will come back to an enrollment of about 900 pupils.
The Defino Central School currently has modular units that are used as classrooms. Abbott said he would like to eventually remove the modular units and add onto the school, but he said the outbuildings are still needed due to space issues.