Board Wants to Act Quickly on Enrollment Drop

The Washington Township Board of Education will begin devising a plan Wednesday night for the future of the district if it is struck by .

An appointed Ad Hoc Committee, consisting of board members Michelle Munley, Chance Healey, and Kevin Daly, will create an objective and plan for community involvement at its first gathering, Munley said.

“We have this in front of us now, and we need to move quickly,” said Washington Township Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Mohre. “We don’t want to look up on August 31 of 2015 and wonder what we’re going to do.”

The analysis, presented to the school board in November of 2011, showed a projection of the district possibly losing more than 500 students over the course of the next five years. With four schools consisting of five buildings in the district, there would be approximately 1,000 empty seats five years from now, the analysis stated.

Mohre cited that the district’s enrollment dropped 112 students from 2010-11 to 2011-12, and 85 students the year before. The district has also decreased its bus routes from 66 to 61 in that same time span, and dropped six class sections.

But the superintendent also pointed out that kindergarten enrollment for the 2012-13 school year is already ahead of where it was this time a year ago, despite the projected drop.

Mohre said he believes the decrease could be a blessing in disguise, though.

“The idea of full-day kindergarten has been floating around for a while, and many parents are interested in the program,” Mohre said. “But to accomplish that, we’d have to double our space and double our faculty. If the class space becomes available because of the decrease in enrollment, then all we’d have to do is double the faculty.

“I can see us going in that direction, but a lot has to break just right,” he said.

Any addition in faculty would be put into the school’s budget, which would then be voted on, unless the district decides to have its election moved to November.

Another option to occupy the unfilled space is to incorporate more self-contained special education classrooms within the district. The move to keep those students in Washington Township schools would be cost beneficial, said board member Kathleen Compoli.

The Ad Hoc Committee plans to move forward quickly, Munley said, and explore all the options available.

“I expect we will leave no stone unturned,” said School Board President Michael Rec.

The Washington Township School Board will meet next on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the .