Union City’s Board of Education wasted no time in taking advantage of Gov. Christine Todd Whitman’s newly enacted new school facilities construction and financing program.
At the Oct. 18 Board of Education meeting, the board voted to submit the plans for the new middle school, planned for the St. Michael’s Monastery site, to the New Jersey Economic Development Agency for full funding. “Through this action, the Board of Education is saving taxpayer dollars while at the same time giving children the quality education they deserve,” said Union City Board of Education Vice President Lenny Calvo.
This bill, which will allow Union City and other Abbott school districts with special needs to receive full funding for the construction of new schools, was signed in July. However, the state’s Department of Education and economic development agencies did not finalize the guidelines for the funding program until this month.
The new middle school, according to Superintendent of Schools Thomas Highton, will cost $20 million, while the renovations to the St. Joseph’s School site on 14th Street and Summit Avenue that will house an elementary school will cost about $8 million.
While the Board of Education has set aside $15 million in surplus money over the past five years that was going to be used to help fund the project, the board was originally going to ask the city’s Board of School Estimates committee to provide the additional funding.
“Thirteen million in bonds would probably run the city about $1.2 million a year,” said Highton, talking about the interest payments from the bond sales that were going to be used to fund the construction.
“It would be absurd to saddle the taxpayers of Union City with the cost of building one school and the renovations at the St. Joseph’s school,” added Highton.
With the new funding from the state, the board is able to use the money in the surplus toward Early Childhood Education programs, which it was originally saved for.
The new middle school will serve 750 sixth, seventh and eighth grade students.
“Our classroom overcrowding problem at the elementary level had created an intolerable situation,” said Highton, who explained that with the addition of early childhood education programs, the population in the schools has gone up about eight percent from last year’s population. Highton said that usually the population only increases about three percent.
The St. Joseph’s site will open as an elementary school for kindergarten through fifth grade students.
Space for social services, workshops and community meetings is also planned for the St. Michael’s Monastery site.
“We want to have a complete library here as a resource not only for the students, but for residents and local businessmen,” said Highton.
The state’s Department of Education has already approved the plans for the middle school. However Highton said that the plans now have to be approved by the state Department of Community Affairs which will be responsible for accepting bids for and supervising the construction of the site.
Hoping for change
While the state is agreeing to fund the construction of these projects, they are also taking over all of the decision-making concerning these projects.
“The way the law stands now, the state has veto power over what the individual districts want to do,” said Board President Carlos Perez. “It’s a cookie-cutter approach even though every district has different needs.”
Right now, the board wants to construct a complete health center for the city’s students to accommodate the large number of children entering the city’s early childhood programs. However, the state will only pay for a nurse’s office.
“That just won’t be enough to meet the needs of Union City children,” said Perez, who has joined Rutgers Educational Law Center in its appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court regarding the rights of individual school districts to determine what kinds of facilities could be built with state funds. “In short, we believe the districts should have more flexibility in determining their individual needs, and the state should have more flexibility in what it will pay for.”