How to best deal with a projected surge in enrollment was the subject of a board of education meeting Aug. 8, in which Dr. Lawrence Pereira, superintendent of schools, presented to the board a review of the Facilities Task Force Report.

The report was prepared this past spring by the Facilities Task Force, which was charged by the board to research and review the district's long and short-term facility needs. Dr. Pereira reviewed figures identified in the enrollment study and related the importance of these figures to future discussions the board will have in developing a plan for addressing the district's facilities needs. The board also developed a timeline for discussion and consideration of the facilities report, which will begin in September and last approximately two months.

One immediate concern the district faces, according to Executive Director Robert Schilling, is overcrowding at Birch Lane Elementary, which serves over 1,000 students. Currently, kindergarten classes are being held in the Unqua building to help relieve the overcrowding until a more long-term solution is reached. Another concern is the Ames Ninth Grade Center, which now houses approximately 530 children, with a projected enrollment of over 700 students in the next few years. The high school, with just under 1600 students now, is projected to grow to close to 2000 students.

The board will decide which option or combination of options presented by the task force in the facilities report will best suit the district's short and long-term needs. One option being considered to help relieve overcrowded conditions at the high school is to convert the administrative wing of the building into classroom space and to move central administration elsewhere, possibly to Hawthorne, which the district currently rents to BOCES.

Another option in the report that is more complex involves moving all the elementary buildings to K through 5 buildings, making Ames a Grade 6 center, making McKenna a Grade 9 center, and moving McKenna Elementary to the Hawthorne building, which could easily be converted to an elementary school.

"The board has to weigh all these options," said Schilling, who also mentioned that the board would consider the enrollment figures they received in the BOCES study and decide how accurate they believe those numbers to be.

The BOCES study used real estate turnover rates, life/birth rates from the county, and growth rates from the past 10 years to make projections on enrollment over the next 10 years. According to Schilling, their margin of error is between two and three percent. The numbers supplied by the BOCES study were used in conjunction with numbers from a previous study done in the mid 90s to generate the task force report.

Changes that are currently being considered for the district's kindergarten program would also be taken into account by the board when discussing facilities needs.

The board has developed the following timeline for discussion and consideration of the facilities report: Sept. 5--Scheduled Meeting--Overview of report and discussion of enrollment projections. Sept. 12--Special Meeting, 7:30-9:30 p.m.--Discussion of four options contained in task force report. Sept. 19--Scheduled Meeting--Further discussion of options contained in task force report. Oct. 3--Scheduled Meeting--Further discussion of report. Oct. 10--Special Meeting, 7-9:30 p.m.--Focus of discussion to be determined. Oct. 17--Scheduled Meeting--Focus of discussion to be determined.

All meetings will be held in the Board Room, Administration Wing of Massapequa High School. All residents are welcome to attend.