NEW HANOVER: Should middle school students go to Bordentown?

By Amber Cox, Staff Writer
   NEW HANOVER — The Board of Education continued the discussion of expanding its sending-receiving relationship with Bordentown Regional School District to include New Hanover’s 52 middle school students.
   The board held a special meeting March 17 to discuss the proposal and receive more public input, stressing a decision needs to be made at the next meeting tonight, Thursday, at 7:30 p.m. in the library at New Hanover School, 122 Fort Dix St. in Wrightstown.
   New Hanover has just one school to serve all of its 160 kindergarten through eighth-grade students.
   Brian McBride, superintendent and principal of New Hanover, said change needs to occur to ensure the students of New Hanover are receiving the best possible education.
   The school does not have a comprehensive middle school that Bordentown would be able to offer to New Hanover students.
   Currently, Bordentown has a class size of around 22 students. If New Hanover were to join it, the class size would increase by about two students, according to Bordentown Middle School Principal Rob Walder.
   According to the presentation given at the first public hearing, Feb. 23, 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.
   Mr. McBride brought up the idea of doing a feasibility study to discuss further options for the middle school students and if sending them to another, closer district would be possible. However, if a feasibility study were done, the students would not be moving in September.
   ”Bordentown can offer a tremendous amount to our students,” he said. “However, there are the unknowns that come down the road. It would be very difficult to bring the middle school students back to the district so we need to be financially prepared to keep them in Bordentown.”
   Board member Richard Slater said if the students were to move, he wants to make sure the students staying in New Hanover would be receiving the same level of education they are now.
   Mr. Slater also brought up the idea of putting the question of sending the middle school students out as a separate ballot question, but Mr. McBride said he would advise against because there is a short turnaround time to prepare from the election date, April 27, to the board’s reorganization meeting May 2.
   ”We’re tasked with running the school,” Mr. McBride said. “We’re supposed to make sure the school runs efficiently.”
   Board member Christine Smith said one way or another some change needs to occur.
   ”I have to know that at the end of these meetings we’ve done the right thing for the kids,” she said. “We’re here for the benefit of the children. I have to know, regardless of how this goes, things are going to be different.”
   Ms. Smith said she heard from a number of parents they would be pulling their children out of the middle school program.
   ”We are not offering a comprehensive middle school program,” she said. “It’s no fault to the teachers. It’s everybody, for years and years and years of putting a Band-Aid on it. Personally, I don’t think we can put a Band-Aid on it anymore. We’re not meeting the needs of our middle school students, no way, no how.”
   Parent Jennifer Morris said her son, who is in sixth grade, fell off the honor roll because he is bored in his classes.
   ”What about my son’s education?” she said. “I have two other ones that are going to come to the middle school. If something is not done, my kids will not come back to the district.”
   Parent Beth Petty said it was very hard for her daughter to move to the high school. She said the students need to get in with the other students because they are alienated at Bordentown.
   ”How many kids do you have that are going elsewhere already instead of the middle school because the parents don’t like it?” she said. “How many more are looking to pull their kids if this does not go through?”
   Ms. Petty said she doesn’t think this can be put on hold anymore.
   ”They need a good education but they also need to be well-rounded with the social aspect and the after-school activities that go along with it,” she said. “Having just the strong academic background doesn’t help these kids. They’re sick of being in class with the same students.”
   Ms. Petty’s daughter, Jessica, just made the move to Bordentown High School and said it was very hard at the beginning.
   ”It was really hard not knowing anyone,” she said. “You don’t know where to go. You don’t have any friends.
   She added, “Everyone is talking about all of the extra things they did last year in their old school, and we don’t have that opportunity. We don’t want to join clubs because we’re not going to know anyone there. If they get to go to the middle school, they’re going to know people, have friends, go out and do activities. Coming from here, we don’t have that.”
   Parent Linda Lisiewski’s child isn’t in the school yet, but she said she thinks the move is important.
   ”We need to think of the kids,” she said. “We need to put them first.”