The district has also released facility capacity figures for when the district’s school consolidation plan takes effect next school year.
The Evesham Township School District has released its latest enrollment figures for the 2016–2017 school year.
As of Oct. 14, the official day for districts across the state to calculate enrollment figures, the district’s enrollment sits at 4,405 students.
With its current enrollment, the ETSD is about 1,000 students below its peak enrollment of 5,436 students in the 2002–2003 school year.
The district has also released information regarding state Department of Education Facility Efficiency Standards, the model that measures the maximum number of students the state will allow in a school depending on its size.
The district’s total FES capacity is set at 5,863 students, which is 1,458 students above current enrollment figures. Those FES figures also factor into the district’s school consolidation plan, which the state approved in the summer to allow the district to close Evans Elementary School in the 2017–2018 school year.
According to the district, Evans Elementary has an FES capacity of 614 students, and if closed and removed from the district’s total FES, the district would be left with an FES capacity of 5,249 students.
Superintendent John Scavelli, Jr. said the district’s current enrollment is still well below its FES capacity of 5,249 students without Evans Elementary.
“We had to show that we could house all of our students, and the focus was on the elementary school end, in one less school,” Scavelli said.
The district has also released a comparison of its projected enrollment moving forward versus differing enrollment projections commissioned by Evesham Township and the planning board. Earlier this year, the township and school district were involved in a legal battle over the district’s consolidation plan.
The district’s enrollment study projects a total student population of 4,287 students in the 2020–2021 school, versus the township’s study that projects somewhere between 4,459 to 4,593 students, depending on future housing approvals.
Scavelli noted that although the district’s study differs from the township’s, ultimately the district would have enough space for the number of students projected by either study.
“Even if we were a little higher than that number (the district’s study), in actuality we have the space in the schools to accommodate that,” Scavelli said. “In actuality, their study shows the same thing that ours does. It will work moving well into the future.”
In addition to overall enrollment information, the district has released information outlining the average class size for elementary schools using current figures and projections for after the school consolidation plan takes effect this summer.
According to the district, class sizes at Beeler Elementary School have an average of 19.8 students, which is expected to drop slightly to an average of 19.5 students next year.
DeMasi Elementary School classes have an average class size of 19.3 students, with that number projected to drop to 18.7 after consolidation.
Jaggard Elementary School’s average class size is 19.9 students, and class sizes at the school are expected to be nearly identical after consolidation, with an average of 19.7 students per class.
Class sizes at Marlton Elementary School have an average of 20.3 students, which is expected to drop to an average of 19.4 students next year.
For Rice and Van Zant elementary schools, the district projects averages class sizes will rise slightly after consolidation, with Rice increasing from an average of 18.6 students per class to 19.6, and Van Zant increasing from an average of 18 students per class to 18.6.
