By Steve Mayer
Happy New Year to our community! My hope is that you will find time around the holidays to appreciate family and friends, and to enjoy a more restful pace, even if only for a brief period.
As we enter the new year, we will do so with plenty of room to stretch and grow. The new classrooms at Sharon Elementary School are ready for students! During the winter break, our Windsor teachers and those who have taught in the modular classrooms for the past few years will be busy moving into their new spaces. We are excited for the new addition, and are deeply grateful for our community’s support in making it possible.
As we jump ahead to the start of the 2015-2016 school year, we are pleased to have beautiful and appropriate facilities for all of our district children. A new reconfigured grade structure will allow Sharon to host students from preschool through fourth grade while Pond Road Middle School will accommodate grades 5 through 8, a model more reflective of a true middle school. Robbinsville High School will continue its excellent work as a competitive and comprehensive high school.
I am particularly pleased to note that we will have ample space to host the district’s nearly 3,000 students, with room to grow by another 300 or so. I am grateful to be part of a community that understands the value and importance of great schools and sound facilities. We can reasonably anticipate that 2015-2016 will be an exciting year for the Robbinsville Schools.
The Board of Education, ever mindful of the costs associated with programmatic and enrollment growth, continues to seek ways to minimize the impact of educating our children on the local tax levy. We are currently exploring the possibility of utilizing the Windsor property or the modular classrooms to offer a tuition-based, full-day Kindergarten program for neighboring communities. Since several of our neighboring districts provide only half-day Kindergarten programs for their youngest learners, a recent market analysis conducted by the Board suggests a strong potential for up to three classrooms of tuition-based students in a program of this type. A low-risk venture, this plan has the potential to generate as much as $200,000 of recurring annual revenue for the school district.
Even with the extra classroom space made available through the new addition, we will struggle to maintain class sizes that are consistent with Board of Education policy. As our enrollment grows, we will need to add additional K-5 faculty, and we must increase Advanced Placement offerings and high school electives in order to remain competitive with similar high schools. For these reasons, I am pleased to work with a proactive Board that is always looking for ways to best manage increasing costs in a creative and sustainable fashion. Their interest in and commitment to a tuition Kindergarten program shows this.
As we look toward 2015, we do so with great optimism and a belief that our best days as a school district lie ahead. We are acutely aware of the need to do more with less and will continue to work diligently to keep our eyes on the dual prize of outstanding school programs at a low cost. We take pride in the fact that Robbinsville Schools is among the lowest spending districts in the state yet yield excellent results for our students.
This is evidenced by the increasing number of stars—representing college acceptances—that adorn the wall just outside of the school board office. I become increasingly joyful this time of year as students delight in adding their stars to the wall. In addition, alumni regularly communicate they have been well prepared for the demands of higher education. As this continues to prove true year after year, it becomes increasingly clear that we are meeting our mission.
Again, on behalf of the Board of Education, we extend our warmest wishes for a healthy New Year. We thank you for your ongoing support as together we forge a better and stronger tomorrow.
Steve Mayer is superintendent of Robbinsville Schools.
