District starts to plan

for Sept. referendum

Initial proposal calls

for additions at

MEMS, Clark Mills

By dave benjamin

Staff Writer

The Manalapan-English-town Regional School District Board of Educa-tion is hoping to place a referendum before voters in September, seeking approval to build additions at the Manalapan English-town Middle School (MEMS) and at the Clark Mills School.

At this stage there is no estimate for the cost of the construction project.

MEMS is on Millhurst Road and Clark Mills School is on Gordons Corner Road.

In a Feb. 13 presentation to the public, Superintendent of Schools Maureen Lally explained the need for the additions.

"Looking at the size of the district today and five years from now, there are needs out there and they have to be dealt with within a reasonable cost to the taxpayer," the superintendent said.

Lally indicated the present number of classrooms at each school in the district: MEMS, 54; Lafayette Mills, 25; Pine Brook, 38; Wemrock Brook, 29; Clark Mills, 24/25; Milford Brook, 29; and Taylor Mills, 27.

Beginning with MEMS, Lally said the number of students has been building over the past several years. Today there are 1,386 seventh- and eighth-graders at the school, which is about 284 more than the suggested New Jersey State Instructional Capacity Level (NJSICL) of 1,102 students.

If the students didn’t move from class to class and an elementary self-contained model was used, 1,242 students would be the instructional capacity level that would be acceptable, the superintendent said.

Looking at the grades 4-6 schools today, there are 520 students at Lafayette Mills School, 890 students at Pine Brook School, and 575 students at Wemrock Brook School. Those schools have populations within the NJSICL.

The primary schools do not fare as well, Lally said. All three have student populations that exceed the NJSICL. Clark Mills has 512 children where the NJSICL is 504; Milford Brook has 665 children where the NJSICL is 609; and Taylor Mills has a student population of 592 children where the NJSICL is 567.

"In each case we slightly exceed the instructional capacity," the superintendent said. "It became obvious there are two different areas that we have to look at. One was MEMS and the other was our primary schools."

Administrators looked at a variety of redistricting plans, but none of those plans solved the problem, she said. Administrators then examined the possibility of removing the pre-K and kindergarten classes from each primary school.

"That’s when we started to make sense with what happens to the total population," said the superintendent.

MEMS Principal Robert Williams explained what was involved in scheduling the movement of the students at MEMS on a daily basis.

"The scheduling allows us to adapt to the population which we have had to handle over the past few years," said the principal.

Williams said the class sizes have grown to the point where it does not feel comfortable.

"My highest class size is 34 students," he said. "And there are a number of classes that are over 30 (students). The state recommended average is 24."

At MEMS there are nine teachers using carts to go from room to room. The auditorium is used for communications and humanities classes. Faculty rooms house two math classes and the periodical room is used for special education classes. Additionally, there are classes in the media center and the dining room.

There are five lunch periods at MEMS, with approximately 300 students at each seating. The state recommends three lunch periods. There are no faculty rooms at the present time for teachers to prepare for their classes.

Clark Mills Principal Stephanie Kuhns said her school also needs more room. She said the student-personnel services for the regional district and the child study team are both housed at Clark Mills.

A further look at the school indicated that special education classes are held in the conference room and basic skills and English as a Second Language classes are also held in close quarters. Two faculty rooms are used as self-contained special education rooms. There are small group instruction rooms on the stage.

"Our staff is also limited as to where they can go to prepare," said Kuhns. "Schedules are adjusted accordingly so that space is maximized. Our Spanish teacher is using a cart. She shares the office space with a physical education teacher."

Drawing conclusions, the superintendent said MEMS and the K-3 schools are currently inadequate and will remain inadequate.

According to studies made by Joseph Richardson, a demographer with Whitehall Associates, Kinnelon, the superintendent indicated that there will be about 470 new students in the K-8 district by September 2005 and 208 more than that by the beginning of the 2007-08 school year.

Lally noted that Richardson reported that the south side of the township will be a major growth area in the coming years. However, it was also noted that substantial growth has been recognized at the Milford Brook School this year.

Several plans were explored and the best option for the future, and the least costly, explained the superintendent, are additions to MEMS. That plan would keep all seventh and eighth grade students together. Looking at a solution for the primary grade population problem, the superintendent said an addition to Clark Mills, an early childhood center, is the most feasible plan.

"A center that would address the kindergarten and pre-K," said Lally. "That would maintain our current educational programs, preserve our class size which is right now, very good, and would open up four classrooms in each of the primary buildings. There would be space to grow across the district."

David M. Pease, of Design Resources Group, Raritan, described the proposed additions to MEMS and its environs.

The architect said there is a need for a two-story addition to MEMS which would house an additional 22 classrooms.

"The first floor [which would house 11 classrooms] would have the child study team," said Pease. "There is also a smaller room for small group instruction."

The architect also indicated that the plan provided for some reserved space for future construction of three classrooms on each floor.

The second floor would house 11 classrooms, two of these rooms would be used as science rooms, and there would be additional storage space.

A second MEMS addition, of one story, would house an auxiliary gymnasium, a health facility and two additional classrooms, and there would be a cafeteria annex.

Lally said this proposal is not set in stone. There will be additional meetings for input from the public on Feb. 25 at 10:30 a.m. and Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at MEMS. There will be a regularly scheduled meeting at Clark Mills School on Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. Suggestions from the public will also be heard at that time.

The superintendent reiterated that a referendum is expected to be ready for a September vote and if approved, the work would be scheduled for completion by September 2005.