The Mamaroneck Union Free School District will hold a meeting tonight on how to best handle a student body size that has ballooned throughout the past eight years.
Specifically, the meeting will kickstart the beginning stages of forming a task force to help assess the options for accommodating the school district’s growing enrollment, drawing from input of parents, residents and staff members.
“The Board of Education has been carefully watching our climbing enrollment for the last three years and has discussed the issue at televised board meetings since December, 2015,” reads a joint statement from the district. “[T]his fall 471 kindergarteners started in our schools—60 more than projected in May and 95 more than anticipated by the 2011 demographic study.”
While other neighboring school districts decline or remain static, throughout the past decade, staff sizes districtwide have reduced, while enrollment has increased by nearly 650 students—roughly 12 percent—since 2010, according to district numbers.
While a 2011 demographic study predicted peak enrollment at 5,112 students, the district is currently at 5,607 students between the kindergarten to 12th-grade levels.
Though the district says it will be able to accomodate students for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year, the Board of Education has already begun to explore contingency options for potential influx of sudden enrollments over the summer.
According to a statement from the school district, a contingency plan may involve the use of modular classrooms at two alternative locations subject to a referendum and New York state approval, or alternatively, the Board of Education will explore rezoning of elementary school districts to reconfigure classrooms that are the most overburdened.
The task force meeting will be held at Hommocks Library at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 31 and will act as an initial interest meeting in those intending to join.
According to a release, the Board of Education will look to render a decision on its short term enrollment and space solutions at an upcoming meeting on Feb. 27.
