Board Head: We Must Be Strategic With Enrollment Issue

Members of the public and the Washington Township Board of Education alike had an opportunity to chime in on a demographer’s , and have begun to explore the possible outcomes and consequences of actions taken as a result.

According to District Superintendent Jeffery Mohre, the reason the district hired a demographer to conduct this study in the first place was to identify potential enrollment issues, as recent trends have shown that enrollment has decreased over the past two years.

“We wanted to get out in front of this, which is why we’ve commissioned a demographer,” said Mohre. “Now that his work is completed, we want to stay in front of it and make sure we’re making decisions focused on enrollment and the quality of education.”

Several Board of Education members echoed that sentiment at Tuesday night’s meeting.

“We must not be reactive, but rather strategic, about how we interpret and deal with the facts we have at hand,” said Board of Education President Michael Rec, who also noted that the board should not have a knee-jerk reaction to the data and should take a calm, thought-out approach to determining the best course of action.

“There are certainly lessons learned from the last demographic study (which led to the Cucinella School referendum) that we can take advantage of here and that can only help us, in the end,” added Rec.

Many members of the public, upon becoming aware of demographer Dr. Richard Grip’s report, have been calling for the district to close one of its six schools in an effort to respond to the projection while minimizing tax increases for the township’s residents. Some members of the board, however, believe it would be too soon to make such a decision.

“We should have an honest and transparent discussion on the consequences of closing a school. What are the clear consequences of doing such,” said Board of Education member Kathy Koop. “If I were a parent not on the Board of Ed and I didn’t attend these meetings and such, I would want to know the consequences for such a decision. We have to be very clear with everyone on the consequences of this idea of closing a school.”

Added Koop, “I brought up the topic of consequences because I don’t want to close a school or come up with an alternative solution and have children instructed in a hallway.”

Rec stated that it is too early to tell what the right decision for the district in regards to this matter will be.

“At the end of the day, (closing a school) may be the right thing,” said Rec, “but we need to be thoughtful about the questions and the answers.”

The Board also seemed very receptive of letting members of the public participate in the process of making a decision.

“I think this is a great opportunity to be fiscally responsible and to do the best that we can for the students of our district,” said Koop. “I think it is a good opportunity to involve other people and create a committee.”

Gavin Leslie, a long-time resident of Washington Township, appreciated the board’s willingness to explore all options and work with the public on this issue as it did during the process that eventually led to the construction of the Cucinella School.

“All of the chatter out there on all of the social networks and in the papers is about closing schools, when really you can look at this from the other side, as well, that we have too few children,” said Leslie. “If we follow the precedent that was set the last time around, we should identify the options available to us.”

“I’d be happy to step up (and contribute to the process),” added Leslie.

Leslie also cautioned the board and the residents in attendance against reading too far into the projected drop in enrollment.

“As we now know, the projections that we relied upon (during the Cucinella process) actually didn’t come to pass,” said Leslie. “That’s the nature of projections; it’s a crystal ball.”

In the end, Mohre seemed confident in the board’s ability to work with the public on a solution to the potential enrollment issue.

“Not only do we have a strong sense as a board of what we value, we also have a strong sense of what our faculty and our community members value,” said Mohre.