Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • April 25, 2012 FLOW Area High school enrollment shift surprises district by Frank J. McMahon A shift in the enrollments in the two high schools in the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District has surprised the administration and school board. A chart showing the enrollments in the two high schools since the 2007-08 school year was released to the public at a recent meeting of the school board. That chart shows that the enrollment at Ramapo High School decreased from 1,305 students in 2007-08 to 1,094 students in 2011-12 and is projected to increase by only two students to 1,096 students in 2012-13. That represents a 16.2 percent drop over from 200708 to this year, and an anticipated 16 percent drop to the next school year. The enrollment at Indian Hills has increased from 1,029 students in 2007-08 to 1,170 students in 2011-12 and is projected to increase to 1,270 students in 201213. That represents a 13.7 percent increase to this year and a 23.4 percent increase to the next school year. School Board President Ira Belsky described the enrollment shift to Indian Hills as dramatic and surprising. He said the administration is adjusting its staff accordingly. He also pointed out that the district has a policy describing what should be done if one of the district’s schools becomes larger that it can handle. The district’s policy for school attendance provides that the superintendent will establish, and the school board will approve, the areas within the district from which students will attend each of the schools, taking into consideration the number of students in an area in relation to the capacity of the schools, equalization of enrollment in the classrooms, transportation facilities, demographic factors, and other considerations appropriate to the delivery of a comprehensive educational program to all students. Under the policy, students must attend their assigned school unless the courses a student needs for his or her career plans are not available at the assigned school, a student’s family moves within the district, or a student who is the child of a faculty member prefers to attend a school in which his or her parent or guardian is not assigned. The student may also exercise a choice option that allows the student to choose which school he or she will attend when entering the district as a freshman. The choice option was originally offered to Franklin Lakes students in 1999, ending a decades-long district controversy. Before 1999, the high school students from Franklin Lakes were split between Ramapo and Indian Hills based on a dividing line drawn roughly from north to south through the borough. Students on the west side of the borough attended Indian Hills and students on the east side attended Ramapo. A full chronology of the split controversy is available in the reference rooms of the libraries in all three towns in the district. Those towns include Franklin Lakes, Oakland, and Wyckoff. Many residents of Oakland opposed the choice option, claiming most Franklin Lakes students would opt to attend Ramapo and thereby drastically reduce the enrollment at Indian Hills. However, when the first class of students who had the choice option graduated from the district’s two schools, Indian Hills had actually increased its share of the district’s enrollment. The enrollment chart that was recently released by the school board indicates that, since Oakland students were granted the choice option in 2006, the enrollment at Indian Hills has steadily increased. District enrollment has fluctuated over the years. In 1972-73, the district had an enrollment of 3,400 students, with 1,750 at Ramapo and 1,650 at Indian Hills. In 1980-81, the district’s total enrollment was 3,125 students, with 1,550 at Ramapo and 1,575 at Indian Hills. A 1993 facilities study found that enrollment had dropped to 1,804, with 962 at Ramapo and 842 at Indian Hills. In 1997, enrollment was 1,712, with 968 students at Ramapo and 744 at Indian Hills. In 2003, when the first class of students who had been offered the choice option in 1999 was graduating, the total enrollment was 2,115, an increase of 320 students, with 1,197 students at Ramapo and 918 students at Indian Hills. A demographic study that was prepared for the district in the 1990s and updated in March 2000 had predicted a total enrollment of 2,400 students in 2008-09. Superintendent Lauren Schoen advised that the enrollment chart was being released to the public to inform the district’s residents of the change in enrollments in the two district schools. She said she did not know why the change occurred, but she did not think it was related to the discontinuance of the University Programs at Ramapo because so few students attended those programs. Schoen said no specific action has been taken as a result of the enrollment changes other than to adjust some teaching schedules. “In discussing the enrollment capacity of both schools, there are two things that will be need to be considered,” Schoen said. “One is the total capacity our schools can handle, and the other, equally as important, is the ability for us to offer our programs in the rooms we have available equal to what we are offering now. “For example, we only have a certain number of science labs in our schools. Therefore, although our schools may be able to house more students, we need to ensure that all of our students will get the best educationally sound programs they can within the facilities we have for these types of specialized offerings.”