By Amber COx
NEW HANOVER The Board of Education is contemplating expanding its sending-receiving relationship with Bordentown Regional School District to include New Hanover’s 51 middle school students.
The board heard from residents, teachers and parents at a special meeting attended by about 100 people Feb. 23 to discuss the possibility.
New Hanover has just one school to serve all of its 160 kindergarten through eighth-grade students.
”We know that this concept represents a significant change for our school, and we’re certainly not taking the decision lightly,” board President Charles Roohr said. “The concept of the send-receive relationship with another district is something that’s been talked about for several years but only recently have things aligned that would allow this to become a reality.
”Because of the high-quality educational program and the existing send-receive relationship we have with the high school, Bordentown is an obvious close fit for this concept to take place.”
Bordentown’s Superintendent Constance Bauer, the principal and assistant principal of Bordentown Regional Middle School and a few board members also attended the meeting.
Superintendent and Principal of New Hanover Brian McBride said tuition to send the students to Bordentown would save the district just over $5,500 per student. In total, it would cost the district around $82,000 to send the students out while keeping them at New Hanover would cost around $225,000.
”Change must occur,” Mr. McBride said. “We need to do better at how we’re instructing our students. New Hanover is a single school district. We’re alienated as a district. We don’t have another elementary school to compete with in the district.”
Mr. McBride said because there is only one class per grade level, it is very hard to see how the students are performing and which teachers are working with them the best. However, he said there is a family force behind the New Hanover Township School.
”It does take a community to raise a child,” he said. “This is not an easy decision. It needs to be weighed completely.”
Bordentown Middle School Principal Rob Walder said if the middle school students were to attend Bordentown, their report cards, teacher recommendations and transcripts would all be examined carefully to ensure the students were placed in the right class.
Currently, Bordentown has a class size of around 22 students. If New Hanover were to join them, the class size would increase by about two students.
Greg Smith, a former seventh-grade teacher from New Hanover, said when he taught at the school, the students were getting a tremendous educational opportunity.
”It’s a small school environment,” he said. “Everybody knows everybody. You can’t beat that with what you’re comparing it to. The children get a lot of special attention here.”
If the relationship were expanded, teachers from New Hanover would have bumping rights based on tenure and seniority.
Parent Jennifer Weeder said she thinks when the children get older, they need a little more room to spread their wings.
”I think we’re a little bit restricted here,” she said. “I think they need to get used to being in a larger environment. High school is the hardest time in their life, and if you’re taking them from this small classroom environment and throwing them into this gigantic school where they don’t know anybody, it’s a culture shock.”
Ms. Weeder said the earlier the children can get exposed to a larger learning environment, the better.
”I just think this is an opportunity that we shouldn’t pass up,” she said.
Mr. Roohr said there are no plans for New Hanover to completely close the school in the future.
”The board’s goal has always been to keep this school open,” he said. “We realize it is the center of the community. It does offer a lot of positives, but if a better opportunity exists, we have to at least look at it.”
