Trailers greet Millstone students on opening day

VERONICA YANKOWSKI The inside (above) of one of the trailer classrooms installed at Millstone schools for the 2003-04 school year.

School officials looking toward Sept. 30

referendum

By alison granito

Staff Writer

VERONICA YANKOWSKI To ease overcrowding, Millstone schools will hold some classes in trailers outside the main school buildings this year.

MILLSTONE — With enrollment in township schools almost four times what it was in the early 1990s, space is at a premium this year.

According to figures released at an Aug. 25 school board meeting, 1,699 students were expected to descend on the middle and elementary schools yesterday.

School officials hope that a $46.5 million building project — which includes plans for a new middle school and renovations to the two existing schools — will provide a long-term solution to the district’s space crunch.

Voters will get their say in a referendum election scheduled for Sept. 30. The state is expected to pick up $6.6 million in construction costs toward the project with the taxpayers liable for $39.9 million.

VERONICA YANKOWSKI Teacher Eva Blahota prepares her classroom at Millstone Middle School for the first day of school.

"In September we’re going to devote a lot of energy toward getting the public informed about why we need additional building in the district," Schools Superintendent William Setaro said in a recent telephone interview.

"Since our community is so widespread and there are few central gathering places, we’re going to be giving presentations at individual homes throughout town," Setaro said, noting he had presentations scheduled at 15 homes so far.

Public presentations are also on the agenda for the middle and elementary school Back to School nights. Back to School night is slated for Sept. 18 at the elementary school and Sept. 25 at the middle school.

"Not only is the referendum a priority, but a big challenge is going to be how we deal with the present student population," Setaro said.

The district will employ a total of nine trailers outside the elementary and middle schools to house the overflow of students.

"We’ve worked very diligently to make sure we have enough space for the amount of kids we have," Setaro said.

In addition to moving some instructional classrooms outside the two main school buildings, officials plan to resort to some creative measures inside the schools. With the student population having outgrown the lunchroom at the middle school, some students will eat their lunch on a converted stage in the auditorium.

School officials have installed a railing on the stage to create the new "terrace dining area," Setaro said.

School officials have encountered prob­lems with moving the increased number of students around the buildings, particularly at the middle school, Setaro said.

"We literally had bottlenecks in the hallway. Alleviating those is a major prior­ity," the superintendent said, noting that the district was tweaking scheduling to try and cut down on crowded hallways.

Physical changes are not the only changes planned in the district this year. According to Setaro, school officials plan to overhaul parts of the curriculum. Many of the changes are coming to two basic subjects: math and reading.

"One of the things we are doing this year is starting a new algebra curriculum, which will be taught over two years staring with the seventh grade," Setaro said. He said the curriculum was the same as the one taught in the neighboring Upper Freehold Regional School District.

"If students qualify, they will be eligi­ble to start in a higher level math course when they reach high school," Setaro said.

The district is also working on many aspects of its K-8 math curriculum, Setaro said, and will continue to train teachers in the use of guided reading programs.

Another goal for the year is to complete training of the teaching staff in differenti­ated instruction — which is a methodology that trains teachers to teach students of all different levels of ability in the same classroom.

On the extracurricular activities docket for this year is a new online magazine at the middle school.

"It will be kind of like the school news­paper for the 21st century," Setaro said.