Immigration, Danbury’s merits lead to school growth
DANBURY — The city is projected to see school enrollment grow because of its low unemployment, strong housing market and immigrant population, an updated demographics study shows.
Student population could increase by as much as 7.1 percent over the next 10 years, demographers estimated in a study presented Wednesday evening to a task force examining how to handle the schools’ growth.
“You’re an attractive community in that you’re in an area with a good transportation network to access major cities,” said Rebecca Augur, a principal planner with Milone and Macbroom, a consulting firm. “You have low unemployment and a history of immigration and established immigrant community.”
The city ordered an updated demographics study after an unexpected 350 students enrolled in the district this fall. The schools traditionally see 150 more students each year, which is about a 1 to 2 percent increase. But this fall’s increase was 5.6 percent.
Danbury schools need $1.27 million more from the city to cover the extra resources needed to handle the increase, while the mayor has said he plans to hold a referendum in March on a project to add classrooms.
The work of the task force, which includes City Council, school board and other community members, is expected to be key in determining what project the city considers.
“We have a shortterm problem and a longterm problem,” Mayor Mark Boughton said.
Solutions could be using a building in another town or establishing a center for prekindergarten, which would free up space in the elementary schools, he said. Danbury’s public works director also plans to study space use within the school buildings.
Another option is the charter school, which has been approved by the state Board of Education but has not received funding from the legislators, said Rachel Chaleski, school board member.
“Our community wants this school and they’re starting to mobilize in a more organized fashion,” she said.
The task force aims to set up a meeting with Danbury’s state legislators to discuss state funding toward a project.
This year’s estimates were off because the district had reported an unusually low growth year in 201819, Augur said.
Enrollment is more likely to increase by 4.7 percent over five years and 2.9 percent over 10 years, she said. But she recommended the city base any future school projects on higher estimates of 6.6 percent over five years and 7.1 percent over 10 years, so officials would not be caught off guard.
“It’s really hard to tell you exactly what’s going to happen next year,” Augur said.
The district should continue to update its projections because factors like the housing market and immigration are out of the city’s control, she said.
“Our caveats on our projections are probably a little stronger than last year,” Augur said.
Immigrants counted for a large chunk of the new students, the study found.
Just over half — 51 percent — of the new students came from another country. More than 90 percent of those students originated from Central, Latin or South America.
The number of English language learners has increased 11 percent from the previous year, with 56 percent of those children being new to the district. These students primarily live in the downtown area.
Anecdotally, many immigrants are coming to Danbury because their families live in the city, Augur said. Some of the immigrants had been detained in federal facilities and then released to family, while others were attracted to the existing services in the area, she said.
New students were more likely to live in multifamily housing than the total enrollment.
Of students in grades one through 12 who were new to the district, 38 percent live in twotofour family housing, 26 percent live in singlefamily housing and 18 percent live in condominiums or apartments, according to the study.
Overcrowding in the Danbury schools was a major issue in the election, with Democratic challenger Chris Setaro blaming the ballooning enrollment on poor planning for housing development. Setaro lost Tuesday to Boughton.