School Officials: Can't Close a Building

The Hopatcong school district is too crowded to close a building, Director of Guidance Gina Cinotti and Superintendent Dr. Charles Maranzano said Monday.

"We can't afford to close a building," Maranzano said. "We have nowhere else to put the children.

"In fact, if we do, or if we tried to do that, we might create undesirable conditions for teaching and learning, meaning the result of overcrowding our classrooms."

The joint presentation between Cinotti and Maranzano at the meeting grew from rumors that the district should consider closing or selling one of its buildings in lieu of declining enrollment and a drop in teachers and programs, Maranzano said.

More than 96 percent of the district's instructional rooms are being used, Cinotti said.

"That's a mathematical calculation telling you that closing a school is not desirable," she said. "We don't have enough vacant space."

Cinotti said she had been compiling data on Hopatcong's instructional room usage and collaborating with Maranzano and other administrators since July as part of a project toward her superintendent's certification through the Foundation for Educational Administration.

Cinotti said she surveyed each instructional room in all of Hopatcong's five schools, noting particulars such as usage time, average class size, student population classification and technology.

And while, Cinotti said, Hopatcong's enrollment has dropped from about 2,800 students in 2004 to 2,045 in 2011, three schools are being fully utilized while had one empty room and the had six.

The downward trend in student population could reverse itself with a rebounding economy, Maranzano said.

"Could there be an upturn at some point?" he said. "You've seen the downward trend. We seem to be leveling off right about now."