Wellesley School Overcrowding (Boston, Norwood, Canton: 2015, condos, to buy)

[MikePRU]

Here's an interesting email I received a copy of today:

Dear Members of the Hunnewell Community and Staff,

I hope everyone is off to a great start this school year! As you know we have been closely monitoring the enrollment across all of our elementary schools given our current space challenges. Based on our current enrollment numbers at Hunnewell in Grades K and One, we have now closed those grade levels to new enrollment for SY 2014-2015.
Please note that this closure will not affect any family already registered and assigned to Hunnewell. The Administration will work closely with any new families regarding the registration and assignment of their children to other WPS elementary schools.
We will continue to update the community on any additional changes.

Best regards,

David Lussier
Superintendent of Schools

It sounds like Wellesley is starting to have some capacity issues. Families seem to be moving in droves to towns with "top rated" school systems no matter how high the prices climb and it's clearly putting a strain on the local infrastructure as many of these families are replacing families with no children (empty nesters, retirees, etc.). It will be interesting to see how these towns react to the issue. At least Wellesley seems to have some capacity in some of it's other schools. Some other towns might not be so lucky.

[kingeorge]

Every great school district is battling same overcrowding battle lately. This too shall pass. For a while enrollment was down, many schools were abandoned, and converted into condos. Things changed so people are talking about need to build more schools all over again. Circle of life. I am happy there are kids around.

[CaseyB]

Same thing happened when I was in elementary school in Wellesley many moons ago...

[Parsec]

Where are these families coming from? If the population in MA remains stagnant then are some towns seeing a drop in school enrollment?

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by kingeorge

Every great school district is battling same overcrowding battle lately. This too shall pass. For a while enrollment was down, many schools were abandoned, and converted into condos. Things changed so people are talking about need to build more schools all over again. Circle of life. I am happy there are kids around.

Yes. Variations in the size of generations is often cyclical. When the population shrinks, towns often sell off unneeded school buildings. When it grows, all of a sudden they are building new schools. Growing capacity in the school system is not an inexpensive endeavor though and I'm wondering how they will accomplish it (temporary classrooms? building additions on the existing schools? redistricting?) and how will they pay for it.

Originally Posted by Parsec

Where are these families coming from? If the population in MA remains stagnant then are some towns seeing a drop in school enrollment?

Good question.

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

Yes. Variations in the size of generations is often cyclical. When the population shrinks, towns often sell off unneeded school buildings. When it grows, all of a sudden they are building new schools. Growing capacity in the school system is not an inexpensive endeavor though and I'm wondering how they will accomplish it (temporary classrooms? building additions on the existing schools? redistricting?) and how will they pay for it.

With us, they moved all the 6th graders out of the elementary schools and set up temporary classrooms in an administration building while additions were built to 2 of the schools. They thought it was better to move/bus older kids than try to shuffle the younger ones around.

[Utopian Slums]

Originally Posted by Parsec

Where are these families coming from? If the population in MA remains stagnant then are some towns seeing a drop in school enrollment?

A lot of towns south of Boston, not on the coast, are losing students such as Holbrook, Canton, etc.

I'm thinking this must be signs of the economic recovery as well since Wesley is an expensive town to buy into. Holbrook is not. I wonder how long this trend has been going on.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by Utopian Slums

A lot of towns south of Boston, not on the coast, are losing students such as Holbrook, Canton, etc.

I'm thinking this must be signs of the economic recovery as well since Wesley is an expensive town to buy into. Holbrook is not. I wonder how long this trend has been going on.

Actually I have a good friend who was priced out of Canton, so I was under the impression that it's not that cheap. FYI he ended up in Norwood.

[snapplegate]

Does anyone know how "overcrowding" impacts class size? The data available on the MA Dept of Ed web site indicates that class size for Wellesely, on average, would be under 20 kids. That doesn't seem very large compared to the rest of the country...is that data inaccurate?

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by snapplegate

Does anyone know how "overcrowding" impacts class size? The data available on the MA Dept of Ed web site indicates that class size for Wellesely, on average, would be under 20 kids. That doesn't seem very large compared to the rest of the country...is that data inaccurate?

I guess that depends on what town and what school you're referring to. It sounds like in the article I posted that in Wellesley (at least for now) it means your child might have to travel a little further to get to school. Luckily for the residents of Wellesley (for now) they seem to have capacity in some other buildings. In other towns it might mean your child spends their day in a temporary classroom or perhaps a makeshift classroom that was originally intended to be a cafeteria, office, or storage space. It's really an issue most of the suburbs with highly ranked school systems are dealing with. Basically, it's not typically affecting class size but it is affecting the learning environment.

As a side note . . . how did the thread title change? I never had anything about condos in it originally.