By Alex Malm
Londonderry Superintendent, Dan Black, briefed the School Board about enrollment trends during the June 20 School Board meeting.
It was explained by Black that they previously did an enrollment study in 2017 and they are mostly on track with what they were projected to have for enrollment based on the study.
However, he said there were questions raised about whether or not they should prepare for having larger enrolment numbers for Moose Hill if they were to go with an expansion project.
Black said he was able to talk to Town Manager, Mike Malaguti, along with the planning department to “better understand the new development happening in town and the overall assumptions and projections for what that can mean for our school system.”
He stated that he was able to find out how the town’s process works so he is able to keep track and to work with the town when it comes to enrollment and development moving forward.
Black said even with the proposed projects, they would be able to handle it.
“Even though there is a lot of multi-family development that can happen in town in the coming years, as well as single family homes, we will be able to absorb the projected number of new students from this development if it does happen,” Black said.
One area they will need to keep a close eye on is when it comes to North School, Black said.
“What we will need to keep an eye on is the part of town that new developments are happening,” said Black. “Right now, North School has run out of permanent space within our current programming and class size assumptions. A large upward trend in enrollment for North School would be more problematic for the School District.”
When it comes to the possible Moose Hill building project, Black said that based on the previous study and what he’s heard from the town he doesn’t think they need to plan on having 350 students “or much larger than our current assumptions.”
“But what I would say is we can better study this issue over the summer and come up with a more detailed answer by the time we are reviewing more accurate cost assumptions for the Moose Hill Phase I and Phase II projects in the Fall,” Black said.
Black stated that they want to look more closely at population trends for NH and Nationally to understand the “larger picture.”
“A few recent studies do point to a more downward trend nationally related to larger demographic shifts going on,” Black said.
The next School Board meeting is slated to take place on July 18 at 7 p.m.