With only three weeks before school reopens on Thursday, September 4, new student registration is chugging along, and as expected, the student population is increasing, particularly at High School North and Community Middle School.##M:[more]##
According to Thomas Smith, assistant superintendent for pupil services and planning, as of August 12 there were 9,”628 students registered district-wide for the upcoming school year, but registration appointments are scheduled for every half hour for the next three weeks, which means that number will increase.
Traditionally, officials in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district have always seen a large increase the number of new students each year, but Smith says the increase is not expected to be as high this year.
“As predicted, it seems our enrollment is beginning to stabilize,” Smith said. “For years we’ve had a minimum of 250-plus students new to the district every year. This year, it looks like we’re going to be pretty static.”
At the end of last school year, the district had 9,”750 students, and so far, 9,”628 students have registered, without taking into account the three remaining weeks of registration, Smith said.
With regard to specific schools, the district budgeted this year to account for the increase in enrollment it predicted primarily at the high and middle school levels.
School officials included funding for the hiring of three new full-time equivalents to go along with the increase in enrollment. Two full-time equivalents were hired at High School North, one as a guidance counselor, and one as a teacher. High School North is reaching full build-out and is almost on par with High School South.
The additional teacher at the middle school level was placed in the Community Middle School’s sixth grade. Over the last few years, the enrollment has started to reverse between Community and Grover, where projections indicate Community will level out in the 1,”200 range, roughly 400 students per grade level, and Grover is headed toward 360 to 370 per grade over the next few years.
During budget discussions this spring, principal projections estimated that Community would have 1,”238 students, and Grover would have 1,”158. School board committee projections are on par with the principal’s for Grover, but with Community, the committee’s projection was that enrollment there could actually reach 1,”275.
As of August 12, Smith says Community has 1,”245 registered students, which falls in between the 1,”238 principal projections and the 1,”275 estimated by the committee. Grover currently has 1,”132 students registered for the 2008-’09 school year.
At the high school level, North has 1,”580 students registered as of August 12, not far from the principal’s projection of 1,”568. The committee projected, though, that there would be 1,”595 students at North this upcoming year. Last October 1,”472 students were enrolled at North.
South has 1,”608 registered so far, which is almost exactly in line with the principal’s projection of 1,”609. The committee had projected 1,”618 students at South. South’s numbers remain flat, with 1,”624 enrolled there last October.
Smith says that as residential developments in both West Windsor and Plainsboro age, the enrollment fluctuates. “When developments are new, typically new families move in with young children,” he said. “As developments age up, you don’t have that same onslaught with people with school-age students all moving in at once.”
“Some developments are sending more kids, and some are sending less,” Smith says. “Part of that is responsible for the shifts in enrollment. Some of the schools are higher, and some of the schools are lower. We just adjust depending on that.”
One adjustment school officials did have to make this year affects residents of Avalon Watch. Dutch Neck Elementary school was given an additional full-time teacher because of the shift in enrollment between Maurice Hawk and Dutch Neck. And come this September, elementary students from Avalon Watch will be moved from Maurice Hawk to Dutch Neck to accommodate the fluctuation, Smith explains.
According to officials’ projections, as of right now, unless there is more new housing — other than the 352 residential units approved for the former Akselrad property on Clarksville Road, known as West Windsor Gardens, and the remainder of the single-family Toll Brothers units in West Windsor — coming into either township, the enrollment numbers should begin to peak after this year.
