Dwindling student numbers could mean closure of a Millstone school

District’s bleak projected enrollment has school officials weighing options

BY JANE MEGGITT Correspondent

By the 2016-17 school year, it may be possible to close one of the three school buildings in the district.

At the Aug. 27 Millstone Township Board of Education meeting, Superintendent of Schools Scott Feder presented a PowerPoint on a schools facility study that reached that conclusion. According to the presentation, the district has the capacity to house 1,887 students in its three schools. That breaks down to 650 students in the middle school, 592 in the elementary school and 645 in the primary school.

The current student enrollment in the district is 1,325. The projected number of students four years from now is 1,100, which means that 787 seats would be available. The board wants to keep class sizes at a maximum of 21 students. By 2013-14, more than one-third of the primary school’s classrooms, 34 percent, will be empty.

The estimated enrollment for next year is 320 students at the K-2 primary school, with 325 seats available and only 23 out of 35 classrooms needed; 398 students in the grades 3-5 elementary school, with 194 seats available and 28 of 29 classrooms in use; and 510 students in the middle school, with 140 seats available and 32 of 35 classrooms in use.

Feder offered examples of reconfiguring the primary school for grades K-3 and the elementary school for grades 4-5 for better use of space.

Currently, the elementary school — the oldest building — is the only one at capacity, and it has the most physical issues, according to Feder.

“The primary school is newer, has stronger core facilities and is not being used as much as the elementary school,” he said.

If the school configurations do not change, by the 2014-15 school year the primary school will have 38 percent, or 14, of its classrooms unused, according to the presentation.

By the year 2015-16, all buildings are to be impacted, with every grade projected to have fewer than 150 students. For that year, current projected enrollment figures are 298 students in the primary school; 365 in the elementary school and 440 in the middle school.

Feder said in the year 2016-17, enrollment is slated to decline to the point where closing a building — probably the elementary school — will become a serious option.

At that point, projected enrollment is 298 in the primary school, 333 in the elementary school and 405 in the middle school.

Feder said conversations about the building’s future should begin in the 2014- 15 school year.

Aside from closing a school, Feder said other options include partnering with other districts; becoming a N.J. Interdistrict Public School Choice Program school, which would allow students from other district to attend Millstone schools, with the state paying their tuition; and expanding the special education program.

Feder said the board must also make decisions about the Millstone Performing Arts Center (MPAC), adjacent to the middle school.

He called it “a large, costly building to operate,” and said the school doesn’t need a 1,200-seat theater for 500 students. He said he would like the board to examine ways to maximize use of the MPAC.

Board president Kevin McGovern said the middle school was built before the township’s zoning changed to 10-acre minimum lots, which affects the future student population. He added that the board must include the Township Committee in discussions about the school’s future.

Feder stressed that any decisions must focus on what is in the best interest of the students.