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Interim superintendent says overcrowding and lack of full‑day kindergarten prompted proposed referendum
Summary
The interim superintendent for the Moorestown Township Public School District told board members that overcrowding in early elementary grades, coupled with no available classrooms to expand full‑day, tuition‑free kindergarten, prompted the development of a proposed referendum to add capacity.
The interim superintendent of the Moorestown Township Public School District said overcrowding at the elementary level and the district’s inability to provide universal, tuition‑free full‑day kindergarten prompted the board to begin a proposed referendum process to add school capacity.
“I was only supposed to be here for six months … and the board was letting me know that there was this proposed housing and there was going to be a likely increase in the population,” the interim superintendent said, adding that their review showed “the problem down the road was not a problem down the road — it was a problem now.”
The superintendent described specific capacity pressures at the district’s elementary schools, saying first and second grades are capped at 25 students while “best practices” are closer to 22. They said kindergarten sections are capped at 22 students even though best practice is about 20, and that the district’s kindergarten enrollment pattern shows a rise in first‑grade numbers compared with kindergarten, which suggests many children are not attending kindergarten in the district.
The superintendent also described boundary and assignment effects that increase crowding: students who live in one neighborhood school zone (named in the exchange as Baker) face closed grade levels and are routed and bused to another school (named Roberts), which places additional pressure on classroom space and transportation.
On kindergarten participation, the superintendent said roughly 85 to 90 percent of families pay tuition to keep their children in full‑day kindergarten, leaving about 10 to 15 percent of kindergarten‑aged children not in full‑day K. That gap, they said, contributes to larger cohort sizes entering first grade.
“The problem is there’s no space — there’s not an available classroom at our elementary level,” the superintendent said, arguing the capacity shortfall is an immediate operational problem rather than a future one. They said those findings are what “developed us into this process of a referendum.”
The transcript did not record a formal vote or further board action in this excerpt; the interim superintendent described the district moving into the referendum process as a next step to address space and program needs.
