Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, told the Board of Education at its meeting on Tuesday, September 20, the district's Future Forecast Committee is preparing a recommendation for October 11, with the expectation that the school board will make a decision on its ongoing facility and enrollment discussion in November.

A report on district facilities and enrollment was delivered to the board in July, following a February charge for a Future Forecast Committee to research school use and projected declining enrollment.

At the school board's last meeting, on September 6, it voted not to close an elementary school due to declining enrollment. The decision leaves the option of closing Newtown Middle School or not closing any district school on the board's scope for future discussions. If no school is closed, the conversation has focused on re-purposing space.

Since the board's September 6 meeting, Dr Erardi said the Future Forecast Committee met and discussed more aspects of the ongoing discussion.

Due to this year's enrollment data, Dr Erardi said, the Future Forecast Committee is now focusing on studying potential outcomes from the highest projection of a 2014 Mallone and MacBroom enrollment report, which included high, medium, and low projections.

"We have been in the medium enrollment track, and we have now moved into the high enrollment track, which means we have more students than projected [but] still declining enrollment," said Dr Erardi.

Following the Board of Education's September 6 decision, Dr Erardi said the Future Forecast Committee decided to no longer focus on any district reconfigurations that would add a grade level to the elementary schools.

"With the onset of additional students already moving into our elementary schools, the committee agreed that to be recommending an additional grade at our elementary schools was unsustainable," said Dr Erardi.

The committee's report in July included options for reconfiguring the district if a school is closed or if space is repurposed. The committee will now focus on three of those options, which all include closing Newtown Middle School. According to the report, one option is feasible by the 2019-20 school year and two are feasible by the 2022-23 school year.

Earlier on Tuesday, at a Future Forecast Committee meeting, Dr Erardi said the school board is "anxious to have us weigh in on what instruction would look like" with possible reconfigurations of the district.

Dr Erardi also told the committee to focus its conversation ahead of October 11 on how the middle school would be used if the board decides to close it.

Dr Erardi told the school board the committee plans to finalize a report for the school board by the committee's October 11 meeting.

"I think it also makes some sense for the board to begin to think about bringing the conversation to a close," said Dr Erardi, later recommending dedicating a meeting in November to the discussion.