BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer
EAST BRUNSWICK — A large increase in student enrollment since 1994 has caused class sizes to grow well beyond state guidelines.
Stating that recent increases in class size can greatly affect performance, and that too many students are being bussed away from their over-capacity home schools, school officials are making their case for the passage of building referendums to be held next month and in 2006.
During an Oct. 28 Board of Education meeting, a presentation from Superintendent of Schools Jo Ann Magistro focused on overcrowding and the need to reduce class size. The board is expected to begin its upcoming meetings with similar presentations — facilities’ needs will be discussed Nov. 18, and the financial aspects of the upcoming referendum will be presented at a Dec. 2 meeting.
School officials plan to “fix the worst first” by building a mostly new Hammarskjold Middle School and by improving and adding onto the Central and Lawrence Brook elementary schools. The subject of a Dec. 14 referendum, the project would cost $106.1 million — $81.4 from township taxpayers and $24.7 million from the state. For East Brunswick homeowners, the cost per $100,000 of assessed valuation would be $45 in 2006 and in subsequent years $74, $131, and $140 in 2009.
The referendum would be followed in two years by a second, less-costly plan to add and renovate the Bowne-Munro, Chittick, Frost, Irwin, Memorial and Warnsdorfer elementary schools.
The school district continues to offer tours of the schools included in the Dec. 14 referendum. While future tours remain at Lawrence Brook, at noon on Dec. 2, and at Central — to be held at 2 p.m. Nov. 17 and 10 a.m. Dec. 8 — much of the focus is drawing people to Hammarskjold. Tours of the middle school, each followed 45 minutes later by a presentation, will be given Nov. 16 at 1 p.m. and Nov. 17 at 9:30 a.m. A final tour is scheduled for Dec. 9 at 1:15 p.m.
Trish LaDuca, the district’s community relations coordinator, said attendance at recent tours has not been great.
“I don’t know if it’s disinterest or if people just already believe [the needs exist],” she said.
District officials are particularly reaching out to parents of children in preschool or younger. Since any new facilities would not be up and running until 2007 or 2008, it is those parents whose children will be most affected by the projects.
“Preschool parents should be informed,” LaDuca said, “because down the line, their children are the ones who stand to benefit the most.”
To attend a tour, call (732) 613-6892 in advance.
The board’s Oct. 28 presentation showed how class sizes have increased and how they are over state guidelines, particularly in the sixth and seventh grades.
While state guidelines hold that classes in grades one through three should have no more than 21 students, there are 63 East Brunswick classes in those grades that are over that recommendation, according to district documents. Most of those classes are now at 25 students.
In grades four and five, the state guidelines call for no more than 23 students per class. However, the township has 30 classes beyond that in those grades. The district has capped each of those classes at 27 students.
In sixth and seventh grades, the state recommends each class have no more than 23 students. However, some 528 of East Brunswick’s 819 classes in those grade levels are over the state guideline, with some exceeding 30 students.
Classroom trailers have been used at the Hammarskjold Middle School for four years. Officials have received extensions to the two-year lease allowed for classroom trailers only because they have a plan to replace them with a permanent structure.
Due to the elementary schools’ overcrowding, numerous grade levels are closed at certain schools, meaning they are not accepting any more students.
At the Bowne-Munro school, grades one, two, three and five are closed; at Central, second grade is closed; at Chittick, grades two and three; Frost, grade two; Lawrence Brook, grades one through four; Memorial, grades two and three; and Warnsdorfer grades two and four.
As a result, new students must be bused to other schools where their grade is still open. In all, 170 East Brunswick students are not presently attending their “home school,” or the one closest to where they live.
Officials attribute many of the problems to the spike in enrollment that has taken place since 1994, when total enrollment was 7,180. It is now at 9,037, an increase of 1,857.
Officials argued that class size does make a difference. Smaller classes allow teachers to get to know students better and to spend more time with each student. The smaller classes also allow for more communication with parents and for more content to be covered, and less time is needed to correct negative behaviors. There is also more student participation and hands-on activities, the district indicated.
As a result of those factors, students tend to show higher achievement, participate more in class, and focus on tasks for longer periods of time, officials said in the presentation.