MAY 11, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015, 12:24 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Ridgewood district administrators informally assessed enrollment numbers of the village’s six elementary schools since 2009, a response to the public’s mounting concerns over anticipated class sizes next year.
In its search for a trend, the administration determined that a definitive conclusion could not be identified.
What the research did do, however, was provide a baseline for the district as it continues to monitor overall enrollment heading into the next academic year.
Board of Education (BOE) members said for the past several weeks that they have engaged in numerous conversations and fielded emails from parents alarmed with increasing class sizes. Two dozen parents publicly expressed related concerns at a school board meeting last month.
Those speakers, most with children attending Willard and Hawes schools, noted that high enrollment in the lower grades is adversely impacting the educational environment for the students. The rising student-to-teacher ratio also places a burden on the staff, parents contend.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/board-of-education-to-monitor-enrollment-1.1331434
I will soon be selling a 5 bedroom house. High taxes that modtly support the schools. Let someone with 4 children pay these taxes.
Glad they are doing analysis – but after they build the new apartments downtown, some new analysis will be needed.
Uhh, why would you live in a five bedroom house with no kids?
Lots of us own large houses with no kids.
Some had kids “leave the nest”
Some of us never had any but do not like to live in apartments.
I will be selling because my children have graduated and moved on in life, as it is supposed to be.
Don’t need the five bedrooms and I certainly do not need to pay for the schools anymore. I lived in Ridgewood before I had children and have paid more than my share of taxes.
The next owner will probably have 3 or 4 children and will love the home as I did.if there were a tax incentive to stay I would consider it.
Empty nesters have been selling their houses to families with young children for generations in Ridgewood and we’ve done just fine. Now the developers and their friends on our Council want to build hundreds of apartments in town for empty nesters. This is a pipe dream – we all know that these apartments will attract families with school children from nearby cities with school systems that lag behind Ridgewood’s.
A couple things are going to happen that nobody wants to talk about. 1. Kids who live in the apartments will go to Ridge, Willard and GW where class sizes are already beginning to tick up. 2. If empty nesters trying to sell their houses are competing with developers renting apartments to families with kids, the value of your house will go down.
We are being sold a bill of goods by special interest groups, specifically developers and labor unions, that are supported by 3 members of our Council. Their “studies” have produced laughable results – traffic will decrease and school population will stay flat. False and false.