School Committee wary of recent enrollment gains

Canton School Committee members are planning to keep a watchful eye on student enrollment this year after the district saw a large influx of new students over the summer months, particularly in the upper grades.

School Superintendent Jeff Granatino said that as of Thursday, September 5, the Canton school district had 3,245 students — 62 more than at the end of the last school year in June. The large majority of the new enrollments (46 students) were at the high school, while the Galvin Middle School gained 22 students.

Meanwhile, the total elementary population actually declined slightly, with six fewer students since June. However, there are four fifth-grade classes at the Luce School that are currently above the recommended class size of 24 students, with each class now holding 26 or 27 students.

Granatino said school officials had anticipated the larger classes at the Luce based on last year’s fourth grade enrollment. He added that new students who enroll in the Luce district could potentially be sent to other elementary schools, and he plans to hire additional educational aides to assist the teachers at the Luce School.

The overall enrollment increases are at least somewhat concerning to school officials as they grapple with both short-term and long-term space needs and the expected influx of students from the Avalon housing development near the Randolph-Canton line. Committee members plan to closely monitor these figures while seeking guidance and input from the newly formed School Building Study Committee, headed by School Committee member John Bonnanzio.

In other news from Thursday night’s meeting, committee members received more defined cost estimates for the renovation of the CHS tennis courts, which was one of the recommendations made by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in its recent accreditation report.

The project is now estimated to cost $408,000, which is $43,000 more than initially projected. The additional costs are needed for drainage and materials and also to enlarge the space to accommodate doubles competition during high school matches.

The committee chose the $408,000 cost versus other projected options of $560,000 and $580,000. A portion of the project will be paid for with Community Preservation Act funding ($200,000), and the remaining costs will be divided between the selectmen and the school department. The project will now go out to bid, with construction slated to start in the late spring following the completion of the CHS tennis season.

See this week’s Canton Citizen for additional highlights from the September 4 School Committee meeting.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Sep 11 2014. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.