Bayonne trustees delay St. Andrews decision pending city demographic data

The Bayonne School District superintendent told trustees at an open workshop that the district is awaiting population data from the city that will shape enrollment forecasts and inform long-term decisions about the St. Andrews property.

The superintendent said district staff have shared internal data with the firm conducting a demographic study and that the remaining work requires city population figures. “We will know what our population looks like and [be] forecasting for the next 10 years,” the superintendent said, stressing the numbers will guide decisions about facilities and capacity.

District staff reviewed a roughly 10-year comparison, saying the district recorded 9,341 students plus 434 prekindergarten students a decade ago (about 9,776). The transcript’s figure for current enrollment was unclear; the superintendent characterized the district’s trend as different from the statewide declines seen in many other systems.

Trustees and staff noted public data sources disagree—census estimates, demographic review sites and state reports offer varying numbers—and that the city’s figures are needed to reconcile the differences. A trustee reported they had reiterated the request to city officials and received a renewed commitment to provide the information, but the data had not arrived by the meeting.

Why it matters: the district said it does not want to build or expand facilities that could later be underused, nor leave schools undersized; trustees were told the demographic report will be shared in full with the board and the community once completed.

Next steps: staff will incorporate the city’s demographic numbers into the study and return findings to trustees; no formal vote or decision about the St. Andrews property was taken at the workshop.