Class size balancing at Millburn schools

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Updated: April 4, 2012 1:50AM

Change is coming to Millburn Grade School District.

Beginning this fall, sixth-through-eighth-grade students will be housed in one building, according to a recently approved district reconfiguration.

Millburn Central houses more than 1,000 preschool through eighth graders. Millburn West School houses more than 450 kindergarten through eighth graders.

The change is saving District 24 an estimated $225,000 a year, according to Millburn District 24 Superintendent Jason Lind.

“It wasn’t just finances that drove the decision. When they (board committee) investigated (reconfiguration), it was really balancing the class sizes between the two schools,” Lind said.

There is quite a difference in the average class size at each school.

For example, in 2011, the average sixth-grade class at Central had 29 students. The average sixth-grade class at West had 21 students, according to 2011 school report card data.

The reconfiguration will balance the class sizes between the two schools, Lind said.

Millburn Central will house preschool through fifth grade; West will hold grades six through eight.

“Everybody will have the same average class size. That became our biggest challenge — it was really a balancing issue with the district,” Lind said.

The school board first considered reconfiguring the district in May 2010 for both financial reasons and because of declining student enrollment.

“Our school district is struggling financially. We have been operating with a deficit,” Lind said.

The district has been borrowing up to $3 million in short-term funding just to make payroll, he said. The money is paid back when the district gets taxes in the spring, but this has been an ongoing pattern.

Reconfiguring the schools allows for fewer bus routes, saving about $25,000. The rest of the savings comes from the retirement of four teachers, he said. Those four teachers will not be replaced.

“We’re looking at any cost-saving measures without cutting into our programming,” Lind said.