Finalized Redistricting Affects 3 Brick Schools

BRICK, NJ — Brick Township School District officials say a redistricting plan that will shift 64 students from Veterans Memorial Elementary School to two other schools in the district will relieve overcrowding at the school and give the district some breathing room at least for the short term.

"We've taken an incremental step here," interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said. "I think this solves the problem for the present, but we will have to see what happens in the future."

Dennis Filippone, the district's director of planning, research and evaluation, said the students from Veterans Elementary would be split between Midstreams Elementary and Herbertsville Elementary, with 18 students who are at Veterans Elementary slated to move to Herbertsville in the fall and 46 Veterans students slated to shift to Midstreams for the 2017-18 school year.

Documents posted with the school board agenda detailed the which streets will be affected.

The area bounded by Burnt Tavern Road on the north, Route 70 on the west, and the Brick Township-Point Pleasant border on the east would shift from Veterans Elementary to Midstreams. The area north of Windcrest Court on Sawmill Road would change from Veterans to Herbertsville.

Filippone said Veterans would lose 10 students from kindergarten, 12 first-graders, 11 second-graders, 7 third-graders, 13 fourth-graders and 11 fifth-graders. Of those, 3 kindergartners, 3 first-graders, 2 second-graders, 2 third-graders, 4 fourth-graders and 4 fifth-graders would move to Herbertsville Elementary; 7 kindergartners, 9 first-graders, 9 second-graders, 5 third-graders, 9 fourth-graders and 7 fifth-graders are set to move to Midstreams, he said.

The redistricting would leave Veterans with an average of 21.2 students per class. Midstreams would have an average of 19.3 students and Herbertsville would have 21.4, Filippone said.

Gialanella said the goal is to keep class sizes in the low 20s, particularly in the youngest grades, where research has shown smaller class sizes are critical for students' growth. State law mandates a classroom aide for kindergarten class sizes of more than 25 students, he said.

Filippone said affected students who will be fourth- or fifth-graders in the fall can request permission to remain at Veterans if parents submit a written request to the superintendent and if they are willing to drive their child to Veterans.

Residents questioned why the Early Education Center was not used for classes, as it had been a number of years ago, and Gialanella said doing so would have forced the district to hire teachers and other staff members. "We did not want to take on that cost," Gialanella said. Shifting students to Herbertsville and Midstreams was "a more efficient use of staff," he said.

Some students already had been shifted to Midstreams and Herbertsville this year, with some criticizing the move. But Filippone said the only students moved were students who were new to the district. Gialanella said those students were redirected because there was no more room in the classes at Veterans.

Gialanella said that while district enrollment has been decreasing, the population in the area that feeds Veterans has been rising and is predicted by a demographer to continue to rise. "This solves the problem for the present," he said. "We will have to see where the growth and loss is in the future."