Washington Avenue Kindergarten At Capacity

In his first meeting as superintendent, Michael LaSusa told the board kindergarten enrollment at (WAS) has reached total capacity.

"Any students who come to Washington Avenue School as kindergarteners now are being directed to , where we added that fifth section," LaSusa said.

Students who register for kindergarten at WAS are now being directed to Southern Boulevard School (SBS), where the district added a fifth section of kindergarten.

The district runs kindergarten as a half-day program, in either the mornings or the afternoons. "We do have half-of-a-day's worth of space at ," LaSusa said, so students near Milton can still attend kindergarten there.

LaSusa said the students were rerouted to SBS because of the fifth section there, and because transporting students to SBS from southern parts of the borough was easier than transporting students north to Milton.

"The transportation costs to get kids from out this way over to Milton Avenue School would have been pretty significant," LaSusa said. "We'd have had to send a bus from places in the township to Milton."

Current kindergarten enrollment currently stands at these numbers, according to LaSusa:

• 69 students at MAS
• 107 students at SBS
• 100 students at WAS (at full capacity)

Overall, LaSusa said, enrollment in the district has not grown by much so far. "We're only about 20 kids greater than we were a year ago this time," he said. Enrollment will likely increase further before the start of school in September.

At the start of the 2011-12 school year, on Sept. 6, 2011, up from at the start of the 2010-11 school year.

According to past demographers reports, each grade typically grows by at least five percent each year as they move through the district.

The Board of Education asked LaSusa to provide precise numbers on the district's growth history as students move from kindergarten to first grade