Evesham Township officials believe the Evesham Township School District could keeps Evans Elementary School open and save money elsewhere by instead working with the township to turn the district’s administration building on South Maple Avenue into a redevelopment or rehabilitation project.
With declining enrollments across the district, ETSD officials have started to once again float the possibility of closing Evans Elementary School to save money — a plan to which Mayor Randy is vehemently opposed.
Brown used the March 8 meeting of the Evesham Township Council to direct township officials to work with the district in exploring the possibility of turning the district’s administration building, which already sits within the township’s rehabilitation/redevelopment zone, into potential new homes or townhouses.
“There’s nothing wrong with that property to our knowledge,” Brown said, referencing a claim made by district officials that it would be hard to sell the property due to ground contamination issues.
Brown said when he first heard the claim he had township officials investigate any potential issues, and while there are problems with a piece of district-owned property across the street on Oak Avenue, Brown and officials believe the administration building itself is clean and prime for redevelopment or rehabilitation.
Brown also noted that some townhouses in Evesham are selling for an average of $375,000 to $400,000 and there could be real value to the land.
“Value is always tied to what you could put there,” Brown said.
Even with just preliminary investigations, township manger Tom Czerniecki said he was able to find several examples of buildings such as old school properties or churches that have been adapted for reuse as residences.
Czerniecki said the district might then be able to move its administrative offices to some of the free space in one of its schools, and if that space was ever needed again for classrooms, many boards of education in other towns moved to leased space or shared space with their townships.
“There’s nothing very critical of them staying in that building,” Czerniecki said.
If such a project were to move forward, the township also believes it could work with the Marlton Recreation Council, whose building sits behind the district’s administration building and also falls within the redevelopment/rehabilitation zone.
Together, township officials said the two properties total about 4 acres of land.
Ultimately, Brown used the discussion to reiterate his belief that the school district’s problem was overspending, not enrollment.
District enrollment has dropped from the peak of 5,436 students in the 2002–2003 school year to 4,440 students in this current school year, and is projected to drop further to 4,080 students by the time of the current farthest projection of the 2020–2021 school year.
However, Brown noted that the Evesham School District’s budget was $9 million more than that of neighboring Mt. Laurel, despite Evesham only having several hundred more children enrolled.
“The closing of a school is not an excuse because there’s overspending,” Brown said. “The closing of a school should never and can never happen in a town like ours.”
