Enrollment projections a concern
BY TOYNETT HALL
Staff Writer

HOWELL - Mayor Joseph DiBella has expressed concern about a report that indicates that enrollment at Howell High School will continue to increase over the next few years.

A demographic study recently released by the Freehold Regional High School District predicts flat growth for the district as a whole, but shows an increase in enrollment at Howell High School.

According to information provided by the district, enrollment in the FRHSD is expected to remain flat over the next five years, reaching 11,583 students by September 2011. The current district enrollment at the six high schools is about 11,600 students. The district's functional capacity is 12,581 students.

The current functional capacity (85 percent) of Howell High School is approximately 2,300 students.

There is a projected high of 2,534 students in 2010-11 (95 percent of total capacity).

The 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years are manageable, but higher enrollment levels become a more significant issue in 2009-10 school year, according to the information provided.

All other high schools with the exception of Freehold Township High School will operate below the functional capacity benchmark (85 percent), according to the information provided by the FRHSD.

"Howell High School is dangerously close to being at capacity. It troubles me that other high schools are significantly under capacity," DiBella said.

"I am concerned about the distribution of students among various schools in the Freehold Regional High School District. I do not want Howell or any other high school to be overcrowded. I would rather not see Howell students be neglected or put in less than desirable conditions to be educated," the mayor said.

According to FRHSD Superintendent of Schools James Wasser, the enrollment numbers at the district's six high schools are connected to ongoing residential development in the municipalities that comprise the district.

Those towns are Colts Neck, English-town, Farmingdale, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan and Marlboro.

"I cannot control the growth in the towns. I have to deal with the numbers I have," Wasser said. "I cannot ask the taxpayers of our communities to support a referendum to build another school until it is absolutely essential."

FRHSD Board of Education members plan to study the findings in the demographics report and will decide in September if there is any need for boundary changes to attendance areas for the 2008-09 school year, according to infor-mation provided by the FRHSD.