Crowding at high school projected to get worse
Situation, projections
at Sayreville High School
focus of ad hoc panel
By jennifer dome
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY FARRAH MAFFAI Students crowd the hallways at Sayreville War Memorial High School on the way to their next class.

SAYREVILLE — In the empty, hollow hallways of Sayreville War Memorial High School Friday morning, a bell sounds. Instantly students pour out of classrooms, crowding the corridors where just seconds prior all one could hear was the light sounds of teachers’ voices muffled by classroom doors.

Now, students packed together yell to each other and chit-chat as they move down the crowded hallways, nearly colliding as their paths converge.

In the four minutes allotted between periods at the high school, more than 1,500 students try to get to their next class on time. However, with the "no running" rule and dozens of other students blocking their way, it’s a wonder the students make it to their destinations on time.

This is part of the problem facing Sayreville War Memorial High School, Principal James Brown said as he walked the school hallways Friday.

A music student uses his teacher’s office to practice during the school day.

"The key for us is that it’s not even coming — it’s here. The bodies are here," Brown said.

Solutions to the overcrowding situation at the high school will be the focus of the district’s fourth Blue Ribbon Committee this year. In December, the Board of Education authorized a committee, whose members have yet to be named, to recommend a plan that will solve the problem.

While the school has not reached the level of overcrowding that the middle school is experiencing, it is only a matter of time, Brown said.

"The need is sitting in the middle school," Brown said, adding that the school’s population will grow by approximately 100 students next year with the students coming from the middle school, even with the high school seniors graduating. District officials expect the increases to be more severe in the following years.

This former storage space at Sayreville War Memorial High School (above) was converted to a classroom for a French course earlier this year. The students have since been split up and placed into other, more spacious classrooms.

Students have not needed to eat their lunch in the library yet, as they are at the middle school, but Brown said last week that the cafeteria is crowded, and so is the gymnasium.

"Our core facilities are becoming too small to hold our numbers," Brown said.

Teacher Christine Kwiatkowski said that teachers were sent a notice from the library last week since the library facilities are now mostly booked for class visits during the second half of the year.

Besides the difficulty that students have making it through the hallways, the classrooms themselves are also crowded or unavailable, Kwiatkowski said. She said that teachers used to be able to spend their planning or lunch periods in their classrooms, while now they must go to the teachers lounge since every room is used every period.

At left, Sayreville War Memorial High School Principal James Brown survey’s the cafeteria that holds 500 students during three periods each day. Sometimes the room is used for classes that have no other place to meet.

Some classes are having to meet in the cafeteria or the auditorium, Brown said. He said he expects more classes to use these facilities as instructional space next year.

Fortunately, the school was able to make alternative accommodations for a French class that was using a storage space as a classroom in the beginning of the year. The students have since been divided between other French classes, Brown said.

"We’ve taken every room we can take," Brown said.

One area that is feeling a strain due to the lack of space involves the music programs. More than 100 students must practice in the small music room near the auditorium during choir class, Brown said.

In addition, the marching band and other musical courses have little space to use for practice, especially when they are preparing for exams, as was exhibited Friday by a student practicing in a teacher’s office.

Other facilities, such as gym lockers and the students’ own lockers, are becoming scarce, Brown said. He said the school hasn’t decided what they will do next year in terms of lockers, but the freshman class may have to share their storage spaces.

"That’s coming next," Brown said.

Brown added that since some classrooms have to hold computers and others are used for special education classes, there is limited space available at the school. A high school is unique to other schools since courses such as automotive shop, art and business require different tools and different space availability than at a middle school or elementary school.

The Blue Ribbon Committee will make recommendations based on criteria including district demographic data, enrollment projections, health and safety facilities requirements, and an assessment of the current facilities. In addition, the committee will look at the school curricula — including technology — budgetary considerations and other relevant data, such as community surveys.

Once a recommendation is presented to the board, a referendum question for the district will be formed and sent to voters in December, Board President Kevin Ciak said.

The first Blue Ribbon committee was formed to do an overall facilities recommendation report, the board president said. The second committee recommended an addition at the Emma L. Arleth School, located on Washington Road.

The current renovation and expansion project at the Samsel School on Ernston Road, which will become a new upper elementary school, was the recommendation of the Blue Ribbon III Committee, Ciak said.

The third committee took more than seven months to make its recommendation, since its direction was to look at overcrowding in the district as a whole, according to Ciak. Since the charge for the fourth committee is to look at overcrowding at just the high school, Ciak said he hopes the recommendation will be made after three to six months.