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Matawan-Aberdeen superintendent reports rising enrollment; district begins redistricting planning and seeks capital lease for buses
Summary
Superintendent reported total enrollment of 3,869 and marked overcrowding at Strathmore Elementary; district hired a demographer and will propose redistricting. Board was briefed on a Monmouth County Improvement Authority capital-lease program to replace aging buses and equipment; municipal approvals are still required.
Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District Superintendent Miss Perez told the board on Aug. 25 that the district expects substantial enrollment growth and has begun redistricting planning to balance classroom sizes.
Perez said the district has a total enrollment of 3,869 for the coming school year and is continuing to receive registrations. She identified Strathmore Elementary as the highest-enrollment elementary school, with 492 students and notably large third- and kindergarten-grade cohorts.
The superintendent said the district hired a demographer this spring to develop redistricting plans to relieve overcrowding. “We retained [a firm] to develop redistricting plans to balance enrollment across the schools because we have some schools that are bursting at the seams,” she said. The district opened an extra kindergarten section at Ravine Drive to reduce projected kindergarten class sizes at Strathmore and maintain more even class distribution.
Perez gave comparative enrollment figures the board can use while planning: third-grade enrollment at Strathmore was 126 students, compared with 69 at Ravine Drive and 67 at Cliffwood Elementary. She said families of students who were reassigned to Ravine Drive were being offered district transportation.
On transportation funding, Perez briefed the board about a proposed capital equipment lease through the Monmouth County Improvement Authority that would allow the district to acquire buses and other equipment while keeping lease payments in the regular operating budget. Items identified for the lease included school buses (6-, 24-, 29- and 54-passenger sizes), a cargo van to support the lunch program, a pickup truck with a plow for buildings and grounds, and two golf carts used by athletics and building events.
Perez said the program is a repeat of a 2019 initiative and is intended “to strengthen the transportation fleet and potentially reduce our reliance on contract services and lowering maintenance costs for our aging fleet.” She added the lease program requires both Matawan and Aberdeen municipal resolutions; Aberdeen had approved support and Matawan had scheduled a municipal meeting for Sept. 3.
What it means: District staff said redistricting could change the “home school” assignments for some neighborhoods to rebalance enrollments. The bus lease would replace aging vehicles and does not, they emphasized, increase the district’s total seating capacity beyond existing needs—rather it would shift from contracted seats to district-owned equipment and address end-of-life vehicles. Municipal approvals must be secured before the lease proceeds.
Next steps: The board and district administrative staff indicated they will continue community outreach about redistricting and post the demographer’s full report online. The Monmouth County lease requires approvals by the two municipalities before the district finalizes purchases.
