HILLSDALE—The Board of Education voted on Dec. 13 to approve an $18,000 study to look at the local district’s population trends and likely impacts on the district’s two grammar schools and George G. White Middle School.
The study is timely: the nearly 100-year-old George G. White Middle School is being considered for replacement. The study likely will help board members decide on the size and amenities needed in a new middle school.
A bond referendum could be held in March 2023 should due diligence efforts show no problems and the Board of Education approves moving forward by March 2022.
This would allow time for school officials to apply for state aid and undertake public outreach throughout 2022, officials said.
The board approved the study, 4-0, by resolution, said Board Administrator Sacha Pouliot. Member Nicole Klas was absent.
Superintendent Robert Lombardy told Pascack Press that findings are due no later than March 2022.
Lombardy said that a demographics study is performed every five years to allow the district to “reasonably project” enrollment and that the last one was undertaken in 2016–2017.
The update will be done by Statistical Forecasting LLC of Dorset, Vermont, which offers enrollment projections, computer mapping, and redistricting services.
The contract, which Lombardy signed, calls for a demographic study, housing analysis and housing turnover analysis, with a remote presentation to district officials upon completion.
It includes a community overview, live-birth data, historical enrollment trends, self-contained special education, enrollment projections, housing growth, capacity analysis, home sales, and geographic information system (GIS) mapping.
The resolution notes enrollment projections will be shown for a five-year period, 2022–2023 through 2026–2027, districtwide pre-k through 8th grade by individual grades; and school, pre-K–4, and grades 5–8.
It notes projections will be by grade, not by individual school.
GIS mapping will call out the:
- highest concentration of students in poverty;
- racial distribution in the borough;
- highest concentration of foreign-born persons;
- highest concentration of school-age population (5–17); and
- where in the borough people tend to speak English less than “very well.”
The study also includes a detailed housing and housing turnover analyses. The housing analysis uses Hillsdale housing data, “which would be most useful if the community has a large number of new housing units planned,” states the study.
The turnover analysis will look at the relationship between historic housing sales and enrollment over the years.
“Research has shown that student yields are smallest in long-held homes and greatest in homes that were recently sold,” states the study.
The study will project historical turnover rates of 1- to 4-family homes in town and project the total number of students five years out, though grade-level projections are said not to be on tap due to data constraints.
A New Middle School?
Lombardy told Pascack Press in mid-November that the school district was doing its “due diligence” on possibly building a new middle school directly across the street from its century-old, outdated middle school.
A plan presented by an ad hoc committee in mid-October recommended actions prior to a final decision to replace the school, including a demographic study, title and deed searches of the site, and a topographic study to make sure it is suitable for building. Lombardy told us that this also included an environmental study.
Board President Shane Svorec listed some middle school challenges in November. “Over the years, the district has faced many changes and experienced forces beyond our control — including numerous storms that caused roof leaks and interior wall and floor damage, just to name a few.”
She added, “With a mature building, we have also dealt with limitations of power, an older, less efficient/and at times unreliable boiler, and classrooms, gym, and multi-use space that is not only outdated but not adequate in size and space. Add to this, a national pandemic that further stalled plans and further limited financial resources.”
District officials said they will consider moving forward on a bond referendum in March 2023 to replace George G. White Middle School — constructed in 1922 — if the “due diligence” on a potential site across Magnolia Street from the middle school shows no problems.
However, officials said that a decision on replacement should be made by March 2022 in order to leave enough time to get needed state education department approvals on the amount to be bonded as well as a determination on how much state aid can be anticipated for construction of a new middle school.
So far, district officials have declined to release any details on possible bond costs. Lombardy said the district would likely reveal a middle school replacement cost in early 2022.
However, Mayor John Ruocco disclosed an estimated $68 million cost he had been told and councilman Anthony DeRosa, a liaison to the middle school ad hoc committee, said he was told estimates ranged $65 million to $75 million.
The new middle school would be built across the street from its current location on Magnolia Street, provided the “due diligence” studies find no problems or further delays.
Lombardy said the due diligence phase includes a demographics study, title and deed searches of the site, and a topographic study to ensure it is suitable for building.
He said this would include environmental testing of the soil.