Photos by AVI STEINHARDT/Courier-Post Merchantville Middle School students Alexis Brown (left) and DaShonda Poole, both 14, work on their eighth-grade science project.

Population under age 18 1990: 990 2000: 976 Change: -1.4% Source: 1990, 2000 Census

Merchantville Elementary School is home away from home to 352 children in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The district may be small, but it is looking to the future even as it embraces its past.

The 90,000-square-foot building on Centre Street includes the south wing, built in 1908, sections added in 1910 and 1915, the former high school, constructed in 1928, a gymnasium that opened in 1936 and the library, completed in 1941.

After the high school closed in 1972, it was taken over by the elementary school. In 1996, voters passed a $3.9 million bond referendum to upgrade ventilation and drainage for the aging facility. The school also got upgraded restrooms and some new windows, and had its exterior brickwork repointed.

"Wherever possible, we've tried to restore rather than replace. We're steeped in a lot of Merchantville tradition. The school really lies in the emotional and physical heart of this town," Principal Harris Ransom said.

The renovations - which also included wiring all the classrooms for cable and creating a computer lab - set to rest for now rumors that the school might close or regionalize with another district. Special connection

There is an active Parent-Teacher Association, an active alumni association whose members have an reunion each summer, and a special connection between current students.

"We take pride in having the older kids help the younger ones. They can do that because it's a small district. It's a walking district, with a family setting," Ransom said.

Merchantville's population decreased by nearly 300 from 1990 to 2000. While the elementary school population has also shown an overall decrease, it does flux up and down.

"We have older families moving out and young ones arriving. It's the kind of pattern you see in a small suburban district," Ransom said.

While enrollment has dipped from 431 in 1994, the school gained a student during the current year and increased by 12 students in 2000-2001 after losing 21 students a year earlier. Enrollment projections for 2003-2004 show another slight decrease to 324, 27 less than now.

Class sizes vary from 17 to 24 pupils.

Student demographics have changed to reflect growth in the number of blacks, Hispanics, Asians and American Indians living in the borough. Six to eight children, mostly Hispanic, are served by the district's ESL (English as a second language) pull-out program.

The district also has programs for special education students and for honors students in the upper grades, plus a number of after-school activities.

Through the Walter and Marie Carroll Will Foundation trust, set up decades ago by a longtime borough resident, about $50,000 is available yearly for enrichment activities and $120,000 to $130,000 goes to scholarships for higher education. Budget approved

Residents approved a $5.77 million budget for 2003-2004 that reflected increases in the cost of services for children with special needs and increases in tuition to Pennsauken because more students from Merchantville will be attending its high school in the fall, board of education President Drew Velten said.

Currently, 102 students from the borough attend Pennsauken High School.

"About half our students go on to PHS, half to private or other public schools. More than half our graduates go on to college," Superintendent Christian Swanson said.

Part of the district's current five-year plan involves stepping up efforts to take in out-of-district tuition students.

In 2001-2002, there were three tuition students; this year, there are 10. The school can hold 500 students.

Third-grader Rachael Wilhelm, 8, loves her school.

"I have a great teacher and a great principal, and I'm in the art club," she said. Learns Spanish

In Caren Batterman's full-day kindergarten class, one of two in the school, children are exposed to Spanish on a daily basis.

"If you are wearing amarillo (yellow), you can go get a book," she recently told her students on their weekly trip to the school library, which shares its facilities with a branch of the Camden County Library System.

Students wearing other colors followed. Students learn more Spanish in succeeding years, and last year's first grade performed a Spanish play, Ransom said.

"Gris is gray," said 6-year-old Anthony Sosa, wearing a gray shirt, as he picked out a book.

Said Cherry Jiang, 6, "I like when Ms. Batterman reads to us, and when we play."

Upstairs, in the mini-departmentalized middle school for sixth- through eighth-grades, science teacher Robert Anderson's eighth-grade students were spending their lunch period on their final science projects incorporating five simple machines.

"I came here a month ago from Philadelphia, and so far I love this school. The teachers are nice and I've made a lot of friends here," said Alexis Brown, 14.

This is the third year in Merchantville for Taliah Mason, 13.

"The academics are very good. I learn a lot," Taliah said.