Wednesday, December 12, 2001
By RICHARD COWEN
Staff Writer
CLOSTER -- The Board of Education appears ready to break the political logjam over school expansion and now is moving to hold another ballot proposal for additional classroom space.
After two failed ballot questions and two years of political wrangling among parents and community activists hoping to solve crowding, school officials have put a third school bond proposal on the fast track.
The board is expected to sit down tonight and work out final details of a school expansion plan that trustees want to put before voters in March. On Monday night, the board is scheduled to hire its bond counsel to handle financing for the project.
At this point, the only sure component of the plan is additional classrooms at Hillside School to ease crowding. The future of Tenakill Middle School is less certain. Although new classrooms are needed, some school officials believe that moving the fifth grade to Hillside School would solve the problem.
The price tag? That's not pinned down yet, either. But trustee Jesse Rosenblum said the board had planned to spend around $10 million -- nearly double the $5.8 million voters rejected in January 2000.
Adding classrooms to old buildings means the idea of a third school is dead. Over the summer, a citizens advisory committee was formed to consider either buying back the 102-year-old Village School, which was closed in 1996 and sold to a private developer, or building a new school on vacant land.
But renovating the Village School was estimated to cost upward of $15 million and deemed too expensive. And a new school fell through when the borough said land in Schauble Park was unavailable.
Now proponents of both options are lining up against the balloting, and that could make passage difficult.
Rosenblum said the board didn't look hard enough for vacant land. He said adding space to Hillside or Tenakill schools is just a Band-Aid approach. If enrollment reaches 1,400, as it did in 1968, the district will face another space crunch, he said.
Current enrollment is 1,130 students; projections put it at 1,250 within a few years.
And another resident, Joe Tait, said that Village School was a viable option -- and that board estimates of $15 million to renovate it were inflated. Tait said district attempts to reduce class size to 20 students were not financially feasible.
"It's just a shame that the board is not listening to the community and not listening to the taxpayers," Tait said.
School board President Bibi Hameed could not be reached for comment. Superintendent Jeffrey P. Feifer did not return calls seeking comment.
Staff Writer Richard Cowen's e-mail address is cowen@northjersey.com