School Bd To Discuss Enrollment Reports

By Tanjua Damon

The two reports – the State and the Bothwell report – that the Newtown School District uses to figure our future student enrollment in the schools have been submitted to the school board. It looks like Newtown Schools will continue to grow into the next decade.

The board plans to look at the reports at their Tuesday night meeting December 12. Superintendent of Schools John R. Reed told the board that the Bothwell report is similar to the state report.

The state projects enrollment in Grades K through fifth to peak in 2007 at about 2,900 youngsters. Enrollment in grades six through eight will reach 1,660 in 2010 and then start to decline. High school enrollment could reach 2,060 students by 2010.

In the Bothwell report, the elementary schools are projected to continue to grow until 2005-06, while the middle and high school enrollments will continue to grow into 2008-09

The state submitted its enrollment to the board in late October, but at that time the school board wanted to wait to discuss the figures until they received the report from Bothwell Consulting Associates. Now that both reports are in, a brief discussion of the two will take place at next week’s meeting.

The board did not feel that they needed a committee like they had last year to go over the enrollment reports. Vice Chairman Vincent Saviano, who served on the committee last year, will look over the reports and report back to the board on comparisons with the reports and what the capacity of the schools are in comparison to the provided numbers.

“The data will quickly tell you where we are,” Mr Saviano said.