Cherry Hill’s board of education has begun discussions on redistricting for its elementary schools.
Dr. Benjamin Rood, chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, noted that talks started at the committee’s early-July meeting. No decisions have been made, but Rood explained the scope of the issue and some of the potential options offered to alleviate the influx of students anticipated in the coming years.
“From the Grip report, the demographic numbers show that a lot of our schools are nearing capacity,” Rood said. “We’re kind of there. The Grip Report shows that there’s going to be more burden on our school system. There’s going to be an increased number of kids over the next five years.”
The estimate is that about 600 new elementary students – and the number of middle-school enrolled students – is expected to increase based on current and projected enrollments.
“Where are we going to put them?” Rood asked. “This goes to elementary-school redistricting and beyond, but it’s a really big issue that both the board and the district are going to have to contend with over the next year, to come up with a plan.”
One solution discussed is to convert the Arthur Lewis Administration Building into a functioning elementary school. It is estimated that getting the facility up and runnig would cost $6.5 million, but would help the district gain 200 to 250 new seats for elementary students.
If that path is chosen, the district would aim for the conversion to be done by the 2026-’27 school year. But Rood also acknowledged it would cost about another $200,000 to $400,000 per year to transfer administrative staff into another office space.
“This is something we have to really think about seriously, because Cherry Hill’s going to run out of space,” Rood advised. “We need to do something. This is the beginning of that conversation. There is no plan at the moment to do anything with this building or any other building. … But this has to be at the front end of the conversation.”
In addition to the brainstormed suggestions, Rood noted that the district would put together a committee to look at the redistricting process from now until January, to discuss, seek feedback and submit a tentative plan to the board before rounds of feedback and voting.
“In order to enact anything in this building, staff would have to move out of here by next school year to get this building ready for ’26-’27,” Rood emphasized, “so this is a timely discussion. This is something that has to happen now.”
A communications audit report shared by Rood notes that recommendations include developing a strategic communication plan that would:
1. Develop measurable objectives focused on moving the district toward achieving its goals
2. Strengthen and expand the district’s communication capacity and infrastructure
3. Focus on and improve internal communications and engagement
4. Redesign the district website
5. Address information overload and redundancy by streamlining and clarifying communication outflow.
“The website has something that has really been flagged by all as something that needs to be updated, modernized, made more intuitive, more useful, more user-friendly, all of those things,” Rood said.
“Most people are checking the website on their phones now, so we need to make sure we modernize and have a really good mobile format.”
The full communications audit is available online on the district website.
CJ Davis, former activities director at Cherry Hill East, has been appointed the school’s assistant principal.
In other news:
- The board approved the district’s goals for the 2024-’25 school year, including student wellness, purpose and passion and connecting beyond the classroom. A full breakdown of the goals can be found at https://tinyurl.com/4z9yt8h4.
- Former East High activities director Charles “CJ” Davis, along with Ray Robinson from the Eastampton Township School District was appointed the school’s new assistant principal.
The next board of education meeting is slated for Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 6:30 p.m. There will be committee meetings for Policy and Legislation and Curriculum and Instruction on Monday, August 5 and committee meetings for Strategic Planning and Business and Facilities on Tuesday, August 6.
This article was updated on July 31, 2024.
