The New Jersey Department of Education has recently approved amendments to the Hoboken Board of Education’s long-range facilities construction plan that may result in two of the city’s six public school buildings being closed, and three new ones opening in their place.
The New Jersey Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act, passed in July of 2000, said the state would invest $8.6 billion in public school construction in New Jersey over the next decade, including construction projects in 30 “special needs” school districts. In Hoboken, one of the 30 districts, the original plan was to simply renovate the six existing school buildings. But since then, town officials have found that such a task was too expensive, and have dreamed of closing two buildings and opening several new ones.
Since the original plan was written, Mayor David Roberts, State Sen. Bernard Kenny (D-Hoboken), and some members of the Board of Education have been discussing a high school/middle school complex. At first Roberts proposed putting such a school on the waterfront at the old Maxwell House site, but that waterfront property was expensive, he said.
Now the school board and the mayor are looking to build in the northwest section of town, currently designated a redevelopment area. The first step toward making this happen was having the DOE approve the amendments to the district’s original long-range facility plan. That request was approved this past Dec. 18, according to Carolyn Fernandez, a spokesperson for the New Jersey School Construction Program, a subsidiary of the EDA.
“As far as this plan goes, Mayor Roberts and Sen. Kenny have worked very hard to move things forward,” said Fernandez. “They really have been involved in spearheading this project and have been a positive force.”
In the past year, Kenny, who is the state senate’s majority leader, has called several meetings with the governor’s special council on education and the state’s commissioner of education so that he and Roberts could discuss how to most effectively use the millions in Abbott “special needs” funds that Hoboken is to be allotted. “We still have a long way to go,” said Kenny Thursday. “But thusfar Mayor Roberts deserves a tremendous amount of credit.”
Roberts said he has been for the idea of a new middle school/high school complex since the beginning. “Using these Abbott funds just to fix the existing buildings is just supporting the status quo,” he said. “This is not just about new buildings, but is about changing policy and personnel in order to stimulate academic changes.” Roberts said that he envisions personnel changes to go with the building changes.
The amendments
According to Tim Calligy, who is the district’s facility director, the amendments first call for the upgrade of Wallace, Brandt, Connors and Calabro primary schools. Calligy said that the renovations would include bringing those schools up to current Department of Education standards. This includes the installation of computer and science labs, among other improvements.
The second aspect of the newly approved plan would call for the closing of Demarest Middle School and Hoboken High School. Those buildings would not be torn down, but could be used for other purposes, officials said. They just would not have to be renovated to state education standards.
The schools could be used for a community center, a senior center, an expansion of the library, a community theater, or something completely different, Calligy said. “Before any decision is made in regards to the schools that are closing, there will be a tremendous amount of public input gathered,” he said.
The students from those schools would move into a newly constructed high school and middle school. “Ideally we would like to see a campus setting for the new middle and high school,” said Calligy Thursday, “likely somewhere in the northwest section of town.”
All the middle school students that are now sharing space at the Brandt Middle School would move into the new middle school, making Brandt only a primary school.
The final aspect of the amended facility plan would be to construct one new primary school somewhere in the city, at a site to be determined later.
In the end, if this plan were built as currently proposed, there would be five city primary schools (not including charter schools): Brandt, Connors, Calabro, Wallace, and a new yet unnamed school. There will be one citywide middle school and one high school, which ideally would be located in short proximity to give a campus or complex-type setting.
“This seems to be very good news,” said Board of Education President John Raslowsky II. He added that in an idyllic world, the board would be able to build the middle and high school in close proximity to each other, but he said that it might be difficult to find a large enough space to make that happen. “That is where the challenge lies,” said Raslowsky. “There are a lot fewer options today then 10 years ago.”
He added that one major advantage of having the schools close is that the two schools could share newly constructed recreation spaces.
Superintendent of Schools Patrick Gagliardi was at a school-related conference for the last three days of the week and was not available to comment for this story.
The next step
Now that that the Department of Education has approved the plan, the EDA has to make sure it is cost-effective and physically possible. According to Calligy, the plan will be forwarded to the EDA so it can conduct a feasibility study, consider acquiring land, design the buildings and eventually oversee construction.
Calligy added that a feasibility study is necessary to assure that the benefits of new construction outweigh rehabilitating the buildings. “We are relatively sure [that the EDA] will determine that construction of three new schools will be the way to go,” he said.
While Calligy said it is nearly impossible to estimate total cost for the project at this time, the last time the EDA discussed new school construction with the Board of Education in 2002, estimates of total construction costs ran over $100 million. Calligy added that it will be at least four years before these schools are ready to open.