About 5,600 Basking Ridge Students Head Back to School, Some With Smiles

Some parents looked sad, and others were smiling, as they dropped off their children at the township's Oak Street elementary school for the first day of the school year, on Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Donna Giordano was one of about a dozen Oak Street moms who said they were walking over for breakfast at the Copper Kettle deli in downtown Basking Ridge after accompanying their children to school. Giordano said some of the mothers may have been feeling a bit sad. Her three daughters, however, had been excited about returning to the school off West Oak Street, she said.

School Business Administrator Nick Markarian said on Tuesday that 5,673 students were expected back in the classrooms of the township's four elementary schools,  and William Annin Middle School and Ridge High School. While this year's first day may have looked the same as any other year, school officials this year have the task of absorbing about $3.8 million in lost state aid for 2010-11. In addition, the Board of Education's proposed budget of $86 million was last April defeated by voters, leading to a $800,000 cut from funding for this school year, according to the school district's website, www.bernardsboe.com.

School officials said cuts in areas like the purchase of new library books, classroom aides, and an increase in class sizes are some of the immediate results. Programs such as full-day kindergarten and a nine-period school day at Ridge High School were maintained for this year. However, a budget presentation on the website advised parents that continuation of those programs may be reexamined in coming school years.

Even so, the parents' conversations outside Oak Street after the school day started were centered on the usual issues of how many items had been crammed into backpacks, and who had what teacher.

Kim Carroll said her son, Benjamin, a new kindergartner, had strode confidently into his class that morning, especially since his older brother, Ryan, had the same teacher a few years earlier.

"Benjamin was great," Carroll said. "He was here so many times with his older brother. He was looking forward to (kindergarten) and off he went," she said. Another big change, she said, is that Ryan Carroll is starting sixth grade at the William Annin Middle School. His mother said he was awake at 5 a.m. to get ready for the school bus.

Other mothers said they had observed some tears shed by some moms, and new students who that morning had entered the Oak Street school . 

Libby West and Elyse Rhead, mothers of older students, described themselves as elated after returning their children to Oak Street. "It's just getting everyone back in a routine," Rhead said.

Christine Ziegler, mother of a third grader and a fifth grader at Oak Street, said her dog was happy to get back into his routine of a morning walk after bringing the children to school. 

Sandra Farnham, a township resident who is crossing guard along the Henry Street entrance to the Oak Street school, said she, too, is happy the school year has begun. 

"I love seeing the kids from the year before," Farnham said. Many had seemed to grow so much over the summer, she said. Farnham said she has been a crossing guard for five years, and now some of the familiar students have entered middle school. But she said she's always happy to meet the new students.

On Tuesday, Markarian broke down enrollment figures as 611 students at Cedar Hill elementary school; 565 at Liberty Corner elementary school; 706 at Mount Prospect elementary school; 624 at Oak Street; 1,433 at William Annin Middle School; and 1,734 at Ridge High School.