The Price of Running Low Enrollment Schools

In opening new schools that don’t quickly fill up, the Newark Board of Education is creating more expensive schools to run than schools that have higher enrollment, according to recent data released by the state Department of Education.

The newest school to open up, Nelson Mandela School, has a student to teacher ratio of 7 to 1, according to the district’s Newark Enrolls website. Schools in the East Ward have double that ratio, a fact that has been concerning East Ward legislators.

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“The issue of school overcrowding is a major concern of mine and everyone in the East Ward,” said East Ward Councilman Michael Silva in an email. “Wilson Avenue, Lafayette and Ann Street are the three most overcrowded grammar schools in the city all at or over 176% of their legal capacity. Wilson Avenue is at 246% of capacity,” he said, adding several exclamation points to his email.

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At a State Assembly Budget hearing in April, Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin grilled the New Jersey Schools Development Authority chief about the overcrowded schools and why the SDA chose to purchase a building in the Central ward for the district instead of the East Ward.

“I have to look at those parents every day and be questioned: Why does my child have to go to a school with over 35 kids in their classroom?” the Assemblywoman said.

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Schools are also overcrowded in the North Ward. For instance, Roberto Clemente has 700 students in a building made for 537 students and Barringer holds over 1,700 students in a building made for just over 1,000.

"The superintendent needs to reveal his vision for addressing overcrowding affecting the quality of education offered at a number of schools throughout the city especially in North and East Wards," said North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos Jr., who also chairs the City Council’s Education Committee.

“While I applaud the district's efforts to provide our children with more educational options, the enrollment data for a number of new programs offered by NPS shows a concerning under enrollment,” Ramos said. “The per pupil costs for those under-enrolled schools is through the roof.”

Some of the district’s newest schools aren’t full and classrooms can sometimes run with fewer than 10 children in the grade. The NJ DOE Fall enrollment report shows that in the 2023-24 school year, Michelle Obama School operated with 10 fourth graders, and nine third graders. In contrast, in the East Ward, Lafayette Street and Wilson Avenue have more than 120 third graders and more than 115 fourth graders in each of the schools.

Nelson Mandela school is too new to have per-pupil costs listed on the state DOE website . However, the new Michelle Obama School, which opened in the past few years as one of the district’s new schools, has a per pupil cost of $26,000, more than double what is spent at most East Ward elementary schools.

According to the NJDOE website , the district spends about $12,000 per pupil at Wilson Avenue School, about $9,000 per pupil at Lafayette and $12,000 at Ann Street.

To be sure, some old schools also have large per-pupil spending as well if they have low enrollment. Malcolm X Shabazz High School, for instance, spends $59,000 per pupil, according to the NJDOE website. The South Ward high school is more than two-thirds empty, according to previous reporting in TAPinto Newark.

At the time, the decision to open the Nelson Mandela School was met with criticism by some members of the school board, as the Sir Isaac Newton School is another nearby elementary school that is also under capacity.

This trend of declining enrollment in Newark’s newest schools has been seen throughout the district. Newark’s overall enrollment is increasing for both district and charter schools, but not in all areas of the city. The East and North ward schools are overcrowded, while schools in the South, West and Central wards often run with significant empty seats, according to previous reporting by TAPinto Newark .

"Generally, in bigger districts, leaders don't want class sizes this small for a general education program because of the high costs per student,” said Jessica Swanson, a former senior fellow at the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University and previously Deputy Chief, Finance at DC Public Schools. “Tiny class sizes are a sign that the district may consider consolidating programs to use resources more efficiently," she said.

The Newark Enrolls website shows that there are 134 students at Nelson Mandela.

This month, the district hired a Memphis company to use “secret shoppers and door knocking” to recruit students to the district at a price of nearly $900 per student. The contract shows that the district is aiming to add 311 students this way, at a total cost of $275,000.

When asked about the declining enrollment numbers and the decision to open a new elementary school in the Central Ward rather than the overcrowded East Ward, Nancy Deering, spokesperson for the district, said in an email that “the enrollment at the Nelson Mandela Elementary school is flourishing at 171 students. This was absolutely the best location to place a new school.”

East Side High School has double the number of students it was built for. Meanwhile, the plan to turn the former St. James Hospital medical facility into an East Ward high school, originally scheduled to open in 2022, has stalled. However, that school, which will focus on architecture and the trades, will take students from all over the city when it opens, not just the East Ward.

Near Empty Schools Spend More Per Student

Source: New Jersey Performance Reports, NJDOE

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