After Overcrowding, Clarkstown School Board Changes Location for Next Meeting

The Clarkstown Board of Education will meet Jan. 22 in the auditorium at Clarkstown High School South.

The board will go into executive session to discuss particular personnel at 7 p.m.; the public portion of the meeting should start around 8 p.m.

Last week’s meeting included a discussion session on the district’s new demographer’s report, which concludes that district enrollments, already lower (at about 8,400 students) than they’ve been in 20 years, are expected to decline by another 10 percent by 2018.

At last week’s meeting Congers Elementary supporters challenged the report, called on the trustees to move forward spending $6.5 million to rebuild and renovate the school, and criticized district officials for holding the meeting at the usual location, the Chestnut Grove Administrative Center, because the room was too small.

• See a video of the session on the district’s website.

What is the demographer’s report based on? The population in the district is getting older, a trend that is expected to continue, as the baby boomlet that drove enrollments up across the county comes to an end. Births are declining. Also, housing sales have been declining, bringing fewer young families into the district.

Enrollments are dropping in all Rockland County schools; in Clarkstown, the peak was 2006. Since then, the numbers have declined rapidly. the demographer’s report predicts the district will lose another 859 students by 2018.

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In Clarkstown, the total elementary-age student enrollment is expected to drop by 244 children, to 3,175 from the current 3,419 pupils.

That’s about the size of an elementary school.

Of the 10 elementary schools in the district, Congers is the smallest, down from about 300 in 2013. Little Tor and Strawtown elementaries also have fewer than 300 students this year.

Secondary school enrollment is expected to drop by more than 400 students by 2018.

All the district’s schools are projected to have an increasing amount of unutilized space as the decline continues.

Congers is already closed, with its 235 assigned students placed elsewhere in the district, due to dangerous structural deficiencies. Congers area residents passionately want the school rebuilt and renovated; last year they pushed the district into having a referendum and won, turning out enough ”yes” voters in their polling area to triumph over the “no” vote from elsewhere in the district.

Officials at the Jan. 8 meeting reminded the standing-room-only audience that the demographer’s job is not to make recommendations about closing schools.

Read the demographer’s report here.

Read about the accuracy of the demographer’s reports here.

Related: The 2014 Congers Elementary School bond vote sparked a lot of discussion on Patch.

• About the overall quality of the district

• About state aid

• On various people’s opinions

• On the taxpayer cost