SCHUYLERVILLE — Schuylerville Central School Superintendent Leon Reed said Friday his district’s student population explosion has slowed down with the housing market.

“The district was growing very fast with students in kindergarten through about third grade,” he said. “We were seeing the resale of older, less expensive, starter homes by retirees to young families.”

But, he said, as the housing market has slowed down and with prices having dropped, people looking to sell are taking their homes off the market to wait until prices pick up.

The majority of Schuylerville School District students live in Saratoga, Northumberland, Wilton and Greenwich. Students also come from Fort Edward, Greenwich, Easton and Stillwater.

The district has been growing by 50 to 100 students a year and now totals about 1,900.

Reed said he expects the growth to pick up again, especially if new industry such as the AMD computer chip manufacturing plant is constructed in nearby Malta.

Schuylerville’s Board of Education last week approved contracts for more than $1.5 million in roof replacements and road construction bids.

Reed said the district received several bids and the final cost will be almost $400,000 less than architects had anticipated.

“Costs are up because of fuel prices and the estimates were actually higher than the bids we got,” Reed said.

The district is slated to pay $947,960 to remove and replace the roofs on the elementary school and the junior/senior high school.

Another $589,837 will be spent to replace a playground and build drainage and a road for construction vehicles to come onto campus from Route 4.

Reed said work is expected to begin within two weeks.

Last year, voters approved $24.9 million for improvements and expansion of the school facilities several months after defeating a large plan that included athletic fields and an auditorium.

Approved were: 22 new elementary school classrooms, a new gym, conversion of the library to a cafeteria and conversion of three classrooms to a library and computer room will be completed by 2010.

The junior/senior high school will receive six new classrooms, an art room suite, renovation of girls’ and boys’ locker rooms, expansion of the cafeteria and relocation of the administrative offices.

Reed said the new classrooms are needed even though the student population growth appears to have slowed.

“We’re squeezed in tight with the students we have now. There won’t be any empty classrooms when the new construction is completed,” he said.