The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
School enrollment climbs higher as out-of-state families move to CT
Connecticut students will have a lot of new classmates this year, largely from their neighbors in New York.
Thousands of New Yorkers have been escaping the coronavirus for Connecticut’s countryside, snatching up available houses and giving their families a chance to spread out. The U.S. Postal Service said nearly 10,000 New Yorkers changed their addresses this spring, and now some school districts are reporting upticks in enrollment.
More students is generally welcome news for districts, especially those that have been combating dwindling enrollment numbers for years, but this influx brings some challenges as districts figure out how to socially distance to safely reopen during the coronavirus this fall.
“We are excited about the growing population but recognize that it does alter our classroom configurations to attain the desired social distance for learning,” said Megan Bennett, Region 12’s superintendent. “We have been adjusting our use of building space and are ready to welcome our new students.”
The district is looking at 105 new students, which Bennett says is a “significant increase” for new enrollment and one she credits to all of the new families moving into all three of the district’s towns: Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington. The district generally has less than 700 students total.
Though, one of the bigger surges proportionally, Region 12 is not alone in seeing an enrollment increase.
“We’re noticing that because Connecticut is doing well, people are looking at Connecticut,” state Department of Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona said at one of Gov. Ned Lamont’s press briefings this week. “We want to make sure that the same health and safety standards that we have for the students we know about now are kept moving forward.”
Social distancing with more students
Most districts haven’t had to change their reopening plans because of the new students, though some are employing practices they might not have needed without the increase.
“We were always planning to capture more space between our students,”
Bennett said. “The additional students became part of our planning process.”
Region 12 is using stages, gyms and large spaces, as well as small portable desks to support socially distancing in the classroom. They also moved larger furniture out of the classrooms.
New Fairfield is looking at 42 students more than expected, with new families largely coming from New York and the South, Superintendent Pat Cosentino said.
“The new students are spread out among all grades, so we are able to accommodate them,” she said. “We are currently making sure we have enough desks but we should be OK. We look forward to welcoming the new students and families to our community.”
In Westport, John Bayers, the district’s human resources director, said the lower grade levels are seeing an enrollment spike over their projections.
Bayers attributed these spikes to the current housing market that has seen an influx of people moving into the state.
“We haven’t seen quite a spike yet (at the middle and high schools) but they can absorb that a little bit more just in the regular classes, although it does put a pressure point when we’re talking about class size and thinking of distancing,” he said.
Bayers said the increase could cause short-term budgetary challenges but could also alleviate the declining enrollment seen in recent years.
“Again, it’s a short-term financial challenge to work through, but it could be a long-term benefit for the community,” he said.
New Canaan Superintendent Bryan Luizzi said they’ve recently brought on a few new elementary school staff members to keep class sizes down.
“We’ll keep watching it and keeping an eye on it because class sizes are so important always and more important now,” Luizzi said at Lamont’s press briefing.
Just a slight jump
Though New Canaan real estate agents are seeing a surge in demand for those looking to buy in New Canaan, the school district is only expecting 10 more students.
Those agents said this is probably because most of the families coming in have children who are preschool ages or younger; families with older children are most likely keeping their children enrolled in private school where they already paid thousands for tuition.
“I do think all of these renters and new residents will become permanent residents of New Canaan, so I would see a major spike the following year rather than this September,” Melissa Rwambuya, president of the New Canaan Board of Realtors, said at a recent school board meeting.
The increase in home rentals and sales has been felt in Greenwich as well, according to local Realtors, as homes, especially those with pools, have been flying off the market. What it means for school enrollment for the fall probably won’t be clear until later this month.
Enrollment can be done online at the district’s website but it has also been complicated by the fact district buildings remain closed so parents cannot do it in person yet.
Sasha Houlihan, the district’s communications director, said they are continuing to monitor registration requests and expects the district to be at about 99 percent of the projected enrollment.
“From a broad, districtwide standpoint, there has yet to be a substantial increase in registration numbers,” Houlihan said. “However, there has been an increase in kindergarten registrations in two schools in particular, Old Greenwich School and Parkway School.”
Danbury is no stranger to enrollment increases. Just last year, it faced a surprise 5.6 percent jump in enrollment at the start of the school year, but is not yet seeing those kind of numbers this summer.
Immigration was among the causes of that increase, but is not expected to lead to a jump this year due to travel restrictions from other countries, said Gina Jasmine, coordinator technical data systems, who has been monitoring the district’s enrollment weekly.
Instead, new students could come from next door, she said.
“There are a lot of people moving into Connecticut out of New York State, so I anticipate maybe a bump from there,” Jasmine told school board members this week.
The U.S. Postal Service numbers don’t necessarily reflect new homebuyers coming into the state and include both individuals and entire family units. Short- or long-term renters, or those who own multiple properties and are shifting their primary residence, may also request a change in address.
Danbury’s kindergarten enrollment is in line with where the district was last year at this time, but there has not been a large influx of new ninth-graders like last year.
“However, once we release our plan that could change, we’re thinking that kindergarten registrations will start up ticking as normal,” she said.
Julia Perkins, Ken Borsuk and DJ Simmons contributed to this report.