Counted in

Large numbers of out-of-town children are not attending Middlesex Borough’s schools.

The fear of some taxpayers that they pay to educate students who don’t legally reside in the borough is apparently unfounded. That’s the finding of the Board of Education’s several-months-long reregistration effort.

There were only four students whose Middlesex residency had yet to be conclusively proven with documentation, officials said at the board’s Wednesday, Nov. 19 meeting.

The district intended to continue working with the four students’ families in what appeared to be cases of incomplete paperwork.

If the required documentation, in all cases, eventually makes it to the district’s attendance office, then zero 2024-25 Middlesex Borough students will have been uncovered as non-residents.

“I want to be clear, it’s not four students that haven’t submitted paper,” said School Superintendent Dr. Roberta Freeman at the Nov. 19 meeting. “Their paperwork is partial paperwork, so we continue to work with the families to get it finalized.” 

“There has been difficulty,” Freeman added. “We did exactly what we said we were going to do. We went to the houses, spoke to the families and we are working with them.”

“In some cases,” Freeman concluded, “(there are) language barriers so we are sending out an interpreter to go with our attendance officer to ensure that (families) understand and they can complete the process.”

Business Administrator Annette Giordano said the district schools’ enrollment counts would be submitted to the state in mid-December. The district had 2,029 total pupils enrolled in fall 2024.

The recent reregistration’s results might be a surprise to community members. Some board constituents anticipated pupils would be found who could not document their Middlesex Borough residency. It remains to be seen if those constituents will accept the findings or remain skeptical.

A reregistration that occurred in the district about 15 years ago uncovered roughly 70 non-resident students, according to people involved with that effort. Proponents of the recent reregistration had envisioned again removing non-resident students from the local schools’ enrollment.

The call to conduct a second reregistration was fueled among some taxpayers roughly 20 months ago.

Freeman said at a board meeting in early 2024 that the district was running out of classroom space, sparking community fears of an expensive building plan.

Those concerns were later alleviated after a consultant’s study projected that district enrollment is expected to stay relatively flat for the coming years.

The consultant’s findings, however, did not completely eliminate community sentiment to identify and remove any students who were not truly borough residents. So, a reregistration commenced this past summer.

Identifying a non-resident student, however, would not guarantee their removal from the district and could run up legal fees. Families of supposed non-resident students would have the ability to appeal a removal decision to the state Department of Education.

Any alleged non-resident student would continue attending their borough school until a conclusive decision was rendered. The board’s attorney said earlier this year that the state’s “default position” is to educate students.

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