Throughout the year the student enrollment at Nazareth has declined.
In October 2007, we had 58 more students (4758 total) than in September of 2006 (4700).
On the Board Agenda for Monday's meeting, school enrollment is now at 4747.
The last school year ended with 4713.
8th through 12th remain the largest grades with 10th topping all with 425.
By comparison the K class is under 300.
This is good news for the HS which does not have enough space and its space issues were not addressed when the decision was made to build the new MS. The new MS, however, may appear cavernous as it is being built to accommodate about 1300 7th and 8th graders and we currently have 717 students in 5th and 6th grades (first two classes to use the new building).
9 comments:
Ross
Did you do the math on this. Given the proposed spending of $58M prior to change orders and cost overruns, we are spending $80,892.60 per pupil with the proposed class numbers of 717. Add to this the news in the Express-Times today about lead in the astro turf fields and we have some real lunitics in charge. My prediction is that the people will never get tired of being screwed, excuse my French, over
Chris-
It's a little misleading to calculate the cost/student using students for only ONE year. Barring a major sinkhole, we should be in this school for many years.
A couple additional comments:
1) District enrollment is down almost 20 students since the middle of Feb. I don't exactly know what that means, but I think you'd be hard pressed to continue to call NASD a "growth" district.
2) MS capacity is tricky (and sneaky if you ask me). The Act 34 documents that were presented to the public in support of the new school showed the maximum capacity at 1341. Yet, the district continues to state that it's being built to accomodate 1000 students. What's the deal?
The deal (IMHO, the "sneaky" part) is that for purposes of determining how much a district can spend, Act 34 takes the max capacity of EACH room and totals it up. While, I don't have it in front of me, there was something like 20+ classrooms, tech rooms, etc. etc. The total capacity (1341 in this case) is then multiplied by a $/student amount to determine the maximum amount the district is allowed to spend WITHOUT going to a REFERENDUM.
So, they take the max capacity (even though there is no way they will ever have that many students) for purposes of calculating the cost. This allows a district to spend to the max without approval of the public.
What was further intersting, is that the admin/board decided to add additional "extras" at the recommendation of the Engineering Firm to bring the cost near the maximum budgeted amount. IIRC, these extras totaled over $3M.
One last tidbit.... Typically, the Engineer's Fee is based on the total contract value. What's an extra $3M worth?
Chris-
Forgot to comment about the field... I don't believe our field is AstroTurf (e.g., Nylon). I could be wrong, but I thought our field was FieldTurf which doesn't use Nylon, and therefore shouldn't have a problem with lead based fibers....
Chris
You think those numbers are scary.. I believe the pool cost 5.5 million.. theres what 30 swimmers? (that number is figuring high.)
$183,333.33 Per Swimmer its costing us!! All because the pool water was 2 degrees too cold at the YMCA for our future olympians.
I honestly didnt think that people were this ignorant or just plain free spending.. i mean these are people with COLLEGE degrees running the school district?
Ryan-
Actually, the temperature was too WARM at the YMCA.
Among other things, some parents didn't like the thought of their students/swimmers sharing the locker room with community members. I specifically remember one parent threatening to get their lawyer involved and that he wanted the background of EVERY YMCA member checked so that there were no possible sexual predators. It was ugly...
It would be interesting to know the root cause of this new trend in declining enrollment. Are that many families leaving the area, or are they simply choosing alternate education options for their children? Private school, home schooling....
Amused-
Home schooled students are included in the overall district enrollment numbers. According to the latest numbers, 37 kids have applied (been approved) for home bound education as of April 21, 2008.
I don't think you can pinpoint any one particular reason. People get different jobs, move closer to their existing job, want their kids in a different school district/setting, etc., etc. While waiting for my kids at Sunday School this morning I overheard a conversation about someone's neighbor who was moving to Parkland (they apparently work there). So, I don't think there is ever ONE reason....
Brad, I think you understand this but just to be clear to everyone, home schooled and home bound are two different things.
Home Schooled is when parents choose to educate their children at home, often for religious reasons. Parents have to file with the district and submit paperwork for approval, including the child's education plan. But parents are responsible for the education. Home Schooled students, just like those at Holy Family or other private schools, ARE NOT part of the district attendance figures
Home Bound is when a student has a serious illness and cannot attend school so the district educates him at home by sending in a tutor for 5 hours a week. Must have a doctor's permission and paperwork has to be renewed regularly with the school. Home Bound students are still considered part of the district so they ARE still counted in the attendance figures.
Decreasing student population could have many reasons. People move out, or their children grow up. Those moving in might have older children. Whatever it is we need more accurate forecasts for spending.
It seems everyone who is posting on this topic is looking very short term. I am sure the next few years will be tight financially and there were probably many areas where the district could have saved money on this building, but in my opinion size is not a place to cut. Local districts have been continually expanding as long as I can remember, and a couple of years of relief will not change this trend. The housing market may be in a slump now, but give it a couple years and we will be building even bigger developments and be thankful we built a bigger school.
As far as the act 34 documents, etc.. the state again has been setting rules and regulations that it has no business setting. Each board is accountable to it's constituents and if people are unhappy with the board's decisions they should run and see what it actually takes to run a district.
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