HOPEWELL VALLEY: Panel makes suggestions for schools’ future

Switch to full-day kindergarten from the current half-day?

By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Switch to full-day kindergarten from the current half-day.
Redistrict students who live in the Hopewell Grant development from Stony Brook Elementary to Bear Tavern Elementary.
And start a magnet program that could increase the student population by attracting some out-of-district students and that could, through voluntary redistricting, balance the population disparity among the district’s four elementary schools.
Don’t close an elementary school or the district’s administration building. Don’t move all the district’s fifth graders to Timberlane Middle School.
Those are the recommendations of the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education’s 40-member Future Planning Committee (FPC), an advisory group of school officials and parents from throughout the district that was formed months ago to make recommendations on how to respond to the district’s long-term enrollment decline.
After an hour-long presentation by the FPC that summarized and explained its recommendations, the school board voted unanimously Monday night to accept the FPC’s 29-page report. The board is under no obligation to implement any of the recommendations and did not vote on doing so Monday night.
"There’s still a lot of work to do," said Superintendent Thomas Smith.
Dr. Smith, a member of the FPC, said the district’s current enrollment is 3,691 students, down from a peak of slightly over 4,000 students during the 2006-07 school year. He noted that, according to a demographer hired by the district, the enrollment is expected to decline by 500 more students by 2018-19. The enrollment decline is attributed to "a lack of school-age parents here, people having fewer children and the high price of homes making it hard for people with young children to move here," Dr. Smith said.
The FPC’s report will be posted on the district’s website, officials said.
During the group’s presentation Monday night, FPC member James Creegan said the recommendation the group was most strongly behind was the switch to full-day kindergarten.
"We have the space for it, and the academic program would benefit," he said.
He said pending state legislation, if passed, would require all districts to have full-day kindergarten.
"A majority of the districts in the county and state have it," he said. "It would be a draw to our district."
The recommendation for full-day kindergarten drew vigorous applause from the large group of Hopewell Valley teachers, many of whom attended the meeting due to concern over an impending change in their health benefits program (see separate story).
The FPC estimated the switch to full day kindergarten would require five teachers, at about $65,000 a year each and five paraprofessionals, at about $35,000 a year each. There would be a one-time cost of $100,000 for technology and materials.
"Overall costs would be mitigated by retaining teachers who might otherwise need to be reduced (i.e., laid off) due to declining enrollment," the FPC report states.
Pressed by attendees of the meeting to say whether it would be possible to start all-day kindergarten next year, Dr. Smith said: "We need to answer a lot of questions, budgetary and on materials. To do this well, I’d like to have the additional time" of taking another year to prepare, thus making full-day kindergarten a possibility in 2016-17.
The FPC report noted that, of the district’s four elementary schools, Bear Tavern Elementary has the most available space by far and that this trend is expected to continue. That school’s enrollment is down nearly 200 students from its 2008-09 total of 550 students and is expected to further decline to about 295 students by 2018-19.
In what would be a redistricting move, the FPC recommends switching 65 current kindergarten through third-grade students from Stony Brook Elementary to Bear Tavern. Those students all live in the Hopewell Grant development in southeastern Hopewell Township.
Fourth-graders would have the option of staying at Stony Brook for their final year of elementary school.
"It would go up to about 90 students after the first year. It would be 65 in the first year," due to fourth-graders having the option to stay for more year during the first year the redistricting would take place, said John Johann of the SPC.
Mr. Johann said the SPC had hoped to avoid a recommendation to redistrict. Feeling constrained to do so, however, the committee "felt the best course would be to include one housing community rather than draw a line on a map," Mr. Johann said.
"Hopewell Grant seemed the most logical possibility. It would better balance our schools."
The SPC says that, if this redistricting plan were carried out, both Bear Tavern and Stony Brook would be at 70 percent capacity in terms of student enrollment. Toll Gate Grammar and Hopewell Elementary would be at 79 and 72 percent, respectively.
The SPC says a new magnet program could draw about 20 new students to the district.
The SPC said a number of factors were the basis of its recommendation not to close an elementary school. Mr. Creegan said Toll Gate Grammar, since it is the smallest of the four schools, would have been the most obvious choice for closing. But the FPC is against closing a school, he said, because doing so "would disrupt an entire community" and would add an estimated $800,000 in busing costs annually.
The SPC nixed the idea of closing the administration building and adjacent transportation facility, saying the problems of where to relocate staff and equipment posed too many logistical snags.
As for the idea of moving all fifth-graders to Timberlane, also nixed in the report, the FPC said the only reason it looked into this was concern over how the switch to full-day kindergarten might impact the district. The report says the fifth-graders shouldn’t be moved to Timberlane "unless absolutely necessary and directly related to a space need at the elementary level."