Schools

Schools, Residents to Talk Enrollment Drop

First meeting of Proposed Facilities Plan Committee will take place Wednesday.

About 40 residents are expected to take part in an open meeting Wednesday night, March 7, hosted by the Washington Township School board’s Proposed Facilities Plan Committee, and will begin the exploration of options facing the district’s .

The committee, which was and includes board members Michael Rec, Chance Healy, Kevin Daly, has asked volunteers from a wide variety of residential groups to take part, including students, “empty-nesters” and parents of school-aged children.

“I think we’ve got just about every segment of the community represented,” Munley said about Wednesday night’s potential turnout. “We want to share our objectives with the group and get on the same page so we can move forward.”

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will go over demographer Richard Grip’s study presented to the board in November. That study projects Washington Township’s enrollment numbers will be down more than 500 students in grades kindergarten through eight in five years.

“We’ll tell the residents what they’re signing up for,” Munley said. “We’ll go over a timeline and explain why we’re here, and what we plan to do in this process.”

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Munley said she’s excited about the broad spectrum of residents coming together to work on the issue.

“We need to go over all the options on this topic,” Munley said. “There are going to be short- and long-term solutions that we hope to implement as soon as we can.”

The group will meet at the 7 p.m. at the . Munley said the best way to contact the committee and get involved is by emailing her at mmunley@wtschools.org, or Superintendent Jeff Mohre at jmohre@wtschools.org. Interested residents may also call the board office at 908-876-4172.


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