Brick School District Planning Demographic Study

BRICK, NJ — A demographic study of the Brick Township School District will be undertaken to plan for what the school population should look like over the next seven years.

The district's Board of Education authorized Business Administrator James Edwards to seek competitive bids for a company to conduct the study to look at the district's student population and distribution.

Any changes resulting from the study would likely affect the 2020-21 school year, Edwards said.

The district conducted demographic studies in 2013 and 2016, but Edwards said the 2013 study was seriously flawed. The 2016 study covered a five-year period that ends in 2020, he said.

The demographics study will not only project what the student enrollment will likely be over the next seven years, it also will include recommendations for the district to consider to best utilize its schools. Edwards said the recommendations usually include multiple options.

Resident Vic Fanelli asled whether the district would consider closing schools if that's what the recommendations include. There has been much discussion about enrollment, which has decreased since 2010, but whether it has decreased enough to close a school is not clear, and the board did not respond to the question.

The district's long-term facilities plan notes that the New Jersey Department of Education's facility efficiency standards have calculated Brick's schools can efficiently educate a student enrollment of 8,679.

Edwards noted the state allots more space for preschoolers than any other age group.

"It baffles me that preschool children, as small as they are, need more square feet than high school students do," Edwards said, but that is what the state calculations include.

The Brick schools recently expanded their preschool program through a funded by state grant of $690,965.

Edwards said it will likely be May before the demographer is hired.

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Image via Brick Township Board of Education