By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton school district is taking a wait-and-see approach to the impact that the AvalonBay development has on enrollment, even with the first apartment building due to open next week ahead of students returning from summer break.
When fully online, AvalonBay will have 280 residential units located about a block away from Community Park School. The first building is due to open around Friday of next week, with others in the complex to follow.
Yet it is unclear how many students the district can expect from the tenants who move there. The district has said that a demographer it had hired projected AvalonBay adding 135 children to the school system, but one official said there are too many unknowns at this point.
School board president Andrea Spalla said Friday that it was “premature” to speculate on the need to redistrict the area of town where Community Park School is located to alleviate any enrollment pressure from AvalonBay. At the moment, Community Park is due to have around 350 to 360 children beginning in September, according to the district.
Ms. Spalla said that it was important to find out, when families start moving into AvalonBay, what grade levels their children are at. Instead of lots of elementary-school age children, there could be more entering John Witherspoon Middle School or Princeton High School, she said. The only way the district will know for sure is when parents begin to enroll their children.
Superintendent of Schools Stephen C. Cochrane said Tuesday that based on the latest information he had from an AvalonBay representative, 18 units have been rented out so far, with a few students registered for the coming school year.
AvalonBay will have 280 units spread through the five buildings, at the site of the former Princeton Hospital. According to the town, the company is aiming to open up on Friday of next week, with the building facing Witherspoon Street the first to open.
Ms. Spalla said district administration has been thinking about the impact of AvalonBay for “years.” She would not rule out the district, down the road, drawing a line through AvalonBay so that part of the complex would be zoned for Community Park School, while the other half would be zoned for Johnson Park Elementary School.
Mr. Cochrane said the district has not decided what school to zone AvalonBay for, at this point.
At the same time, the district is keeping an eye on the enrollment impacts of the 325-unit Princeton University housing development, Merwick Stanworth, located on Bayard Lane.
Mr. Cochrane said the project is half-developed, but already, around 30 students are enrolled in the district for the coming school year. He said half of those, 16 children, will be in Community Park School.
Like with AvalonBay Mr. Cochrane said the district has to determine what school to zone for the second half of Merwick Stanworth development.
