Rockville Centre schools see small growth in student population

Rockville Centre schools started the 2011-12 year with a total of 3,589 students — nearly 50 more than it had last year.

Although he described the district’s enrollment as “stable,” schools Superintendent Dr. William Johnson said this year’s higher enrollment figure defies expectations of a flat or smaller student population.

“Data would suggest a decline that would bring us down by 200 or 300 kids,” Johnson said, “This is not what we anticipated. We’re not sure yet if it is a trend and if so, how long it will last.”

One of the biggest increases was in the kindergarten level at Riverside Elementary School, which now has two classes of 15 and 14 students each — a marked departure from the single kindergarten class of 16 students the school had last year. Overall, the district’s kindergartens saw an increase of 57 children. South Side High School also saw an increase — of 35 students — bringing its total enrollment to 1,149.

Johnson said the new AvalonBay apartment complex on Banks Avenue brought in a total of six new students to the district.

Student population in Nassau County as a whole, however, is declining. According to Nassau BOCES, enrollment has been dropping since 2001, especially at the elementary and middle school levels. The high school student population, reflecting the higher birth rate from the 1990s, had been steadily increasing until reaching a peak two years ago, and has now leveled off.

In Nassau County, elementary school enrollment for next year is projected to be about 85,200 students. That is an 8.9 percent decrease from 2003, when there were more than 93,000 in grades K-5 in the county’s public schools.

By 2014, elementary enrollment is projected to fall even further, to 83,000 students. Nassau BOCES Superintendent Dr. Thomas Rogers said a reason for the decline is because the population of 20- to 40-year-olds has fallen by 12 percent in the past decade.

“We, as an island are aging in population, and we are losing people that are of family age and young professional age,” Rogers said. “This is a fundamental kind of shift in the population of Long Island.”

Asked about the significance of Rockville Centre’s unexpected student population growth, Johnson said, “Increased enrollment is good for the community and good for the schools. It means we’re still an attractive alternative.”

Andrew Hackmack contributed to this story.