HUDSON — Hudson Public Schools enrollment was 2,302 students as of Oct. 3 – 20 students more than projected at the close of the last school year, Superintendent Brian Reagan said at the Oct. 10 School Committee meeting.
Farley Elementary School had the most “significant change month to month,” according to Reagan. From Sept. 3 to Oct. 4, the school had 12 more students than projected. The rest of the schools had negligible changes in enrollment and “not much of a shift” in numbers.
School Committee member Molly MacKenzie asked for background information on why the Farley school saw more of the student increase. She asked if it was manageable because the students were spread out throughout the grades.
According to Reagan, Farley Elementary serves the biggest elementary district. Since there are a lot of rental properties and multifamily homes in the district, this results in more turnover in terms of families.
“I think this has been a phenomenon for years in Hudson for the Farley district,” he said. “There tends to be more mobility at the Farley school than at Forest [Avenue] and Mulready. This is something we have to, I think, really take a good look at throughout the spring and next year.”
RELATED CONTENT: Reagan ready to lead Hudson Schools
The idea would be to see if the current enrollment at Farley was sustainable, or if a redistrict plan to shift some of the enrolled students over to the two other elementary schools could “give some relief” to the Farley school staff.
He did note that they have welcomed unhoused families into the district, which would include one-time state funding and a key to addressing staffing concerns for the school.
In other news, a search to fill the director of facilities position is currently ongoing. Reagan thanked Director of Finance and Operations Dan Gale and Director of Human Resources Jenna Allard for their work in expediting the process. The expected deadline is the end of October or beginning of November.
Reagan added, “We’re still on target to appoint by the end of the month.”
He was pleased to see that they “received a strong pool of applications” with a total of 16 applicants.
There are seven semifinalists who will be interviewed, and then from there they will identify finalists who will be made public. Reagan will participate in the second round of interviews with the search committee.
“We will have them in the district to do performance tasks related to the role,” he said. “We’re excited about that. I’m glad that it is moving along as well as it is.”
