AVI STEINHARDT/Courier-Post Students line up for a school assembly at the new Upper Elementary School on Borton Landing Road. Enrollment gains in the district are expected to continue through 2005.

By MIKE DANIELS
Courier-Post Staff

When Dr. Richard Bucko was hired as principal of Baker Elementary School in 1979, the district's superintendent made a prediction.

``He told me he expected the job would only last three to five years . . . They expected that they would be closing another (elementary) school,'' Bucko said. The old Lenola School was closed the same year Bucko started at Baker.

Twenty-two years later, Moorestown is in the business of opening schools, not closing them.

Today's growing district 3,800 students, up from 2,300 students in 1987, with most ofthe rise occurring in the 1990s.

Projections are that growth here will continue. In five years, school officials expect enrollment to reach 4,300 students in the schools. It appears that additions will not be needed at the elementary level to match that enrollment rise, if it occurs. But questions remain about whether the high school might need more space, officials said.

The real challenge, though, educators say, is to continue accommodating growth while continuing to provide the superior education that the Moorestown Public Schools have come to be known for, said Robert Oldt, assistant superintendent of schools.

``It hasn't affected the kind of education we're providing,'' Oldt said. ``With size, sometimes comes more complexity. We've had to hire more staff. But we have accommodated the growth and planned for the growth.''

The planning began in the 1980s when the economy was booming. Like many other South Jersey towns at the time, Moorestown's farm fields were quickly becoming housing developments.

Oldt, who came to the district in 1985, said two of the biggest things to affect the district were the Laurel Creek and Moorestown Hunt developments.

Those two housing developments have slightly more than 700 homes and caused the district to grow about five percent every year between 1993 and 1998, except for one year.

The number of children ages 5 through 19 accounted for almost 16 percent more of the township's overall population in the 2000 census than it did in 1990, according to data from the Census Bureau. Their raw numbers grew some 36 percent, twice as much as the overall 18 percent increase in township population.

Oldt said many of those children who entered the district in the early and mid-'90s, are now reaching the middle school and high school age. This year's graduating senior class of some 230 students will be replaced in number next year by an incoming freshman class of about 320 students.

While next year's freshman class will crowd the school more than it has been, this year those eighth graders have plenty of room to maneuver in the middle school. Instead of having four grades, the middle school only has two - seventh and eighth.

The fifth and sixth graders, along with the fourth graders from the three elementary schools, moved into the new Upper Elementary School on Borton Landing Road. The sprawling, $16 million school houses 950 students and has helped provide much needed room in the elementary schools and middle school.

``We think we're in real good shape, especially in the K-8 area,'' Oldt said. ``We don't anticipate any need for additions to the high school right now.''

While the district will continue to grow, the township's director of community development, Bob Hall, said there are no large housing developments on the horizon. For the last few years, he said the township has issued about 30 to 50 building permits annually as opposed to 150 a year in the late '80s and early '90s.

``Definitely there's been a slow-down,'' Hall said.

Yet no matter how many students come through the doors for an education in Moorestown today, Bucko said the schools will also be ready for those who may arrive tomorrow.

``I think we've always maintained quality instruction,'' Bucko said. ``And we'll continue to do that.''