Former BOE president: Closing Westbrook school a bad idea
West Milford. Former school board president Jim Foody told trusees he thinks selling the school will be bad for the district’s families because it has the largest capacity of the elementary schools.
| 04 Oct 2022 | 10:55
Westbrook Elementary School
Hearing that the West Milford Board of Education (BOE) is considering closing Westbrook School as a possibility to meet the district’s problem of declining student population, former BOE President/trustee Jim Foody was at a recent meeting to tell trustees he thinks this would be a bad move for the children and their parents.
“Westbrook School is the youngest elementary school with the largest student capacity of 508 seats,” he said. “Current enrollment at Westbrook School is 239 students and the current enrollment at Maple Road School is 229. There is enough room at Westbrook to take all the children from both schools.”
Foody went on to explain that there is enough available classroom space at Westbrook to take all the Maple Road children without separating children at both schools.
“That is not the case with Maple Road School,” continued Foody. “They would have to go to separate schools. The idea of bringing our students who are currently involved with special programs at the Our Lady Queen of Peace building is wrong as well. There are only approximately 26 students in that program. Our high school has the capacity of 1840 students and there are only 944 students enrolled now. If we can’t fit 26 students at the high school then there is something seriously wrong here.”
Foody said transportation costs could also be reduced. He said by closing a school private contractor Jordan Transportation would no longer be needed with district school buses able to handle all of the school transportation needs.
Trustees had spoken at an earlier meeting about the possibility of shutting down Westbrook School with the possibility of using the Westbrook building for the district’s Highlander Academy program now housed at the rented church -owned building.
There were some BOE discussions about expanding the Highlander Academy program for students in grades nine through 12 who need personalized programs in order to reach their full potential. Currently, Highlander Academy students are part of the student body of the West Milford High School. Academic programs are developed through district individualized education plans (IEPs) and grade requirements.
