North Hanover, NBC could see enrollment increases when bases merge
By Stephanie Prokop, Staff Writer
NORTH HANOVER—As two military bases begin preparations to merge, schools attended by the soldiers’ children also face reconfiguration.
A letter addressed to the executive county superintendent earlier this year from two colonels at Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base, requested realignment of school attendance boundary lines that would begin with the 2008-09 school year.
The letter, penned by McGuire Air Force Base Col. Balan Ayyar, and Fort Dix Army Installation Col. Ronald Thaxton, asked the county superintendent to “request that the area currently known as Fort Dix be realigned with what is currently known as McGuire Air Force Base so that all dependent children residing on what is soon to become the “Joint Base” attend the same schools.”
Students in grades K-6 who live on the McGuire Air Force Base now attend the North Hanover School District and then go into Northern Burlington County Regional School District for middle and high school.
Students who live in Fort Dix attend Pemberton Township School District.
The request is for students to be placed solely into the Northern Burlington and North Hanover school districts because of the higher amount of federal impact aid that would be allocated to the district, according to the letter.
The two military bases are expected to merge by January 2009.
“Since the two installations will soon become one single federal enclave, it naturally follows that dependent students residing within the one federal enclave and one military family housing community should attend the same schools,” according to the letter.
The letter also stated that for the first four years of operation within a single school district, the base would have a provision to allow current high school students to remain enrolled in their current district until graduation.
North Hanover Superintendent Richard Carson said his district is not worried about the prospect of students from Fort Dix coming to the district, because North Hanover just opened an upper elementary school on Schoolhouse Road for fifth- and sixth-grade students.
Dr. Carson added that because of the ongoing privatization at McGuire, the North Hanover School District had lost approximately 400 students over the course of the past five years.
In addition to that, Chesterfield Elementary School District has been renting out nine classrooms at the Clarence B. Lamb School due to overcrowding issues at Chesterfield Elementary School. The classrooms will become available again in a few years once Chesterfield’s new elementary school is built.
Dr. Carson said that the more military-dependent students in the district, the higher percentage of federal money the district is able to receive. He said approximately 70 percent of the students who attend school in North Hanover live on base.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, Northern Burlington County and North Hanover School District received a total of $5.5 million in federal aid during the 2005-06 school year.
Although Dr. Carson said it would be hard to estimate what Pemberton School District would be receiving from the proposed change in sending agreements, but did say that North Hanover would see more funding.
“If we have 700 or 800 military students in the district, we’re probably going to end up getting more of the impact aid than the rest of the districts that receive students from the bases,” he added.
Rich Vespucci, spokesman for the state Department of Education confirmed that the County Superintendent Lester Richens did receive the letter signed by the commanders, but said there is not yet a definite date set for action.