Eatontown school officials are seeking funds to construct more classrooms in the borough school system, just months after a $29 million upgrade was completed at four of the district’s school.
The Eatontown Board of Education (BOE) is looking to construct five more classrooms as the result of a statewide preschool expansion program that requires all New Jersey school districts to provide free full-day preschool classes to underprivileged 3- and 4-year-olds.
“By 2013, we are going to need to construct a permanent structure at each of our [three] elementary schools,” Eatontown Superintendent of Schools Barbara Struble said at the Nov. 10 board meeting.
Approved under the New Jersey Department of Education’s (DOE) School Funding Reform Act of 2008, the initiative is calling for Eatontown to provide preschool classes for 78 underprivileged or “at-risk” borough children by 2013.
The DOE identified at-risk children as those children whose families meet the financial requirements needed to participate in the state’s free and reduced-cost lunch program.
“This [preschool expansion] program began five years ago in the Abbott districts,” Struble said. “It is now going to [be implemented] in September 2009 for targeted districts, of which Eatontown is one.”
Targeted school districts are districts with less than 40 percent of the total student population identified as at risk.
If 40 percent or more of a district’s student population is considered at risk, the district is identified as a universal district and must therefore provide all of its 3- and 4-year-old students with free preschool classes.
In order to calculate the number of borough children eligible for the preschool program, the state first determined the number of children enrolled in the borough’s first-grade classes as of Oct. 13, 2007.
State officials then doubled the total number of first-graders in the district and multiplied that by the total percent of students participating in the state’s free and reduced lunch program.
“[Seventy-eight students] may actually turn out to be more than we eventually have and it may be less,” Struble said.
During the first year of the program, which will take place during the 2009-10 school year, the district must provide enough classroom space for 15 preschool students.
With each successive year, the district will be required to provide space for an additional 12 students each year until the 2011-12 school year. Then during the 2012-13 school year, the borough must provide space for another 28 students.
An exact source of funding for the construction needed to house the district’s new preschoolers has not yet been established by the BOE, according to Struble.
Current plans for the project call for the BOE to construct one modular unit at each of the borough’s three elementary schools.
State officials have promised the district enough funding to cover operational costs for the first year of the program and some additional funding with each successive year.
In the first year of the program, the borough is expected to receive approximately $195,000 or $11,890 per preschool student.
Yet, according to Struble, the state will not provide any funding to cover the construction costs the district must undergo in order to house the additional students.
With state law permitting no more than 15 children in each preschool class, and the borough expected to be teaching an additional 78 students by 2013, the district must provide five more classrooms, according to Struble.
The school district consists of three elementary schools and one middle school, which house a total of roughly 11,000 students.
According to Struble, there is no additional room to house another 78 students without moving forward with construction plans.
Tentative plans for Eatontown call for 15 preschool students to be housed in a vacant classroom at the Woodmere Elementary School during the 2009-2010 school year and an additional 12 students to be housed in another unused classroom at the Meadowbrook Elementary School during the 2010-2011 school year.
The state is calling for each preschool classroom to be a minimum of 950 square feet, with 150 square feet dedicated to storage and an additional 50 square feet allotted for bathroom space.
Both the Woodmere Elementary School and Meadowbrook Elementary School classrooms do not meet the state’s space requirements, Struble said.
In order for the district to use the two classrooms for preschool students from 2009- 2011, the BOE must apply for space waivers with the DOE.
The borough will be allowed to apply for the space waivers for the first two years of the preschool expansion program. Once two years have passed, the borough will no longer be able to apply for waivers and must provide adequate space for its preschoolers, according to Struble The Eatontown school district is planning to construct one modular unit at each of the three elementary schools over the course of three years. The units will each be capable of holding two classrooms
Possible sources of funding to cover the cost of the project include funds from the No Child Left Behind Act, state grants and property taxes, according to BOE Secretary Robert Green
In addition to providing adequate classroomspace, the district is also responsible for meeting additional needs for the preschool classes.
“We are required to have a certified teacher and a paraprofessional in each of the preschool classes,” Struble said. “In addition to these teachers and paraprofessionals, there are a lot of other services that our children are going to need.”
The program requires that the borough provide a child study team, a master teacher or coach, an early-childhood supervisor, an occupational therapist or physical therapist, a speech pathologist, a preschool intervention and referral team and a community liaison, according to Struble.
All programs’ professional services will be covered by state funding because they are considered operating costs for the classes, Struble said.
Yet the state’s funding will not cover the cost of transportation services for the preschoolers, which could be as much as $90,000 a year if the borough decides it needs to purchase another school van, Struble said.
The BOE is exploring several options, including varying the opening and closing times of borough schools by no more than five minutes, in order to avoid having to purchase a new school van, Struble said.
Other expenses will include funding furniture for classrooms, shelving and other casework, supplies, equipment and an outdoor play area and equipment.
For more information about the program or parents looking to enroll children in the new preschool classes, contact the Eatontown Board of Education’s Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction Joseph Mazzarella at 732-935-3349.
Contact Daniel Howley at