Due to hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation for urban towns, it has been a big year for new school construction in Hudson County.
Four years ago, the New Jersey Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act was signed into law. It provided for the state to investment of billions in public school construction in New Jersey over the next decade, including renovation and construction projects in 28 “special needs” urban school districts, known as the Abbott districts.
Under that legislation, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) was entrusted with the responsibility for financing, designing and constructing school facilities projects in the Abbott districts. In July 2002, Gov. James McGreevey created the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation, a subsidiary corporation of the EDA that has been delegated all the responsibilities for instituting the legislation.
Unfortunately, with recent controversies and diminishing funds, the future of some of these projects has come into question, and local opposition to certain sites has kept county officials and the SCC in the spotlight. But others, particularly in Union City and Hoboken, are full speed ahead.
On the academic front, the rise in state standardized test scores among the Abbott “special needs” districts has made certain local schools shine brightly this year.
Hoboken
Hoboken, like several districts in the area, has benefited greatly from the SCC funds. This past November, representatives from the SCC arrived in Hoboken to present the most current plans for the new high school and elementary school in the city’s formerly industrial northwest redevelopment zone.
The spot being negotiated is a six-acre piece of land, the now-vacant former Cognis Chemical plant on 12th Street. Neither the city nor the state owns the property, but the SCC has nearly completed their feasibility study of the land and has already entered into negotiations with Cognis.
If deemed feasible, the site must be fully cleaned and designs for the school must be drawn up. Senior Project Officer of the SCC Division of Acquisition and Relocation Tom Ahern said, “We’re confident that we can start construction by January or February of 2006.”
In addition to the new schools, the six existing schools in Hoboken will be rehabilitated, except for the Demarest Middle School on Garden Street, which will serve some other public use. Demarest was originally the township’s high school, and crooner Frank Sinatra graduated from it.
The city’s other middle school, Brandt Middle School, will be converted into an elementary school. All of the city’s middle school students will be moved to the existing high school, which will become Hoboken’s only middle school.
According to Tim Calligy, the district’s director of facilities, rehabilitations are in the design phase and should be presented to the Board of Education this January with major work hopefully beginning this upcoming year.
Guttenberg
In Guttenberg, a special election referendum was recently held asking voters to approve a planned $12 million expansion to the town’s only school, Anna L. Klein School, but it was overwhelmingly rejected. The plan would have added a library and a community center to the facility, but also would have increased municipal taxes.
The expansion plan was an attempt to ease the overcrowding in the school. Currently with 959 students, the enrollment is almost double the recommended 572 by the state for that building.
Students in Guttenberg graduate from Klein and attend North Bergen High School.
Jersey City
The Jersey City Board of Education faced an election in April. Of the two incumbents running, only Terrance Curran retained a seat, garnering the most votes with 1,971. Joining in his victory were challengers Jeffrey Dublin with 1,827 votes, and Carmine Venezia with 1,464 votes.
They joined fellow members Anthony Cucci, Willie Flood, Suzanne Mack, and Ron-Calvin Clark, board Vice President Franklin Williams, and board President William DeRosa.
They began to tackle one of the board’s main issues for over 10 years, which is getting the Jersey City School system back under local control. Jersey City has been under the control of the State Department of Education since 1989, and as of yet has not been able to regain local management. However, Jersey City schools have made progress and continue to move forward. Currently, a new procedure called the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum (NJQSAC) is pending approval by the state and, if successful, will be implemented into the Jersey City system as a targeted intervention program.
“The QSAC accelerates the work that has started in the district,” said Ron Rice, representative for the NJ Department of Education. “This is trying to propose a new monitoring system, which simplifies the old system and integrates a lot of the [academic] requirements and state mandates. The QSAC provides a return to local control, while continuing under state control.”
North Bergen
In May, North Bergen Board of Education officials were poised to file a lawsuit against the insurance company that bonded for a proposed $17.4 million extension to Lincoln School, which was never completed because the initial contractors had gone bankrupt over the summer. The new contractor, Brockwell & Carrington, based out of Wayne, has had a good working relationship with North Bergen in the past, having built the extension at Kennedy School last year. It has been selected by insurance bonding companies to complete the project, which is now three years overdue.
Secaucus
The realization of a long-waited dream for expanded Secaucus High School/Middle School complex is reaching its culmination. Four million dollars worth of expansion and renovations are nearing completion. In April of this year, students, parents and faculty gathered in the school’s gymnasium for the ground breaking ceremony of the long-anticipated auditorium, the Arthur F. Couch Performing Arts Center, which has been a vision almost 30 years in the making. It may open this summer in time for the senior class’s graduation.
In addition to the new auditorium, 12 new classrooms were added, nine of which were converted from the school’s now defunct shop programs.
Union City and West New York
Union City and West New York kicked off the academic year with the introduction of two new middle schools, as part of their mandated school constructions funded by the SCC.
Union City welcomed the addition of Jose Marti Middle School, which is Union City’s first new school in over 70 years. Jose Marti is only one of nine schools to be built in Union City’s overcrowded district, something that was mandated by the state of New Jersey.
West New York Middle School also opened its doors just this past September and is the first middle school ever built in West New York. Before the new school was constructed, students would stay in their elementary schools from kindergarten through 8th grade, and then continue to Memorial High School.
Both schools held elaborate ribbon-cutting ceremonies earlier in the school year and celebrated the opening of the new facilities among honored guests, including former Gov. James McGreevey and Rep. Robert Menendez.
Also making controversial headlines in Union City were the proposed locations for some of the new schools that must be built. A huge source of debate among local residents was the new locations for the Emerson and Union Hill high schools, which would displace a number of long-time residents and business owners. The site of the Emerson High School project, which is currently the home of the historic Roosevelt Stadium, seems to have a green light, but debates are still going back and forth for the 39th Street site set for Union Hill.
Although no set dates or plans for the schools seemed to be under way, town officials have theorized there would appear to be no reason why the project wouldn’t go through.
Capping off the academic year for these two towns were the November elections, in which residents voted on whether to switch from an appointed school board to an elected school board. Mayors in both towns wanted the right to keep appointing members of their school boards. Mayor Brian Stack of Union City campaigned vigorously to keep that right. After voters came out for the referenda, appointed boards remained.
Both towns are among the few left in the state that still have an appointed school board.
Weehawken
In January, the Weehawken Board of Education received close to $4 million from the state Department of Education for their three schools, as part of a one-time program to make improvements. Improvements included bringing each building up to codes set by the Americans with Disabilities Act and equipping schools with handicapped ramps, exits and elevators. In turn, the district asked voters to float a bond for the remaining $6 million to complete the other improvements, like renovating the high school gymnasium, auditorium and culinary arts lab, and putting in new windows in all three schools and a classroom extension at Webster School. The high school auditorium, which had remained the same for the last six decades, also received a complete transformation by May, just in time for the end of the year festivities. The entire renovation and restoration project was set to be completed by August.
Academic life
Throughout the year, Hudson County schools have received praise for their academic programs and implemented new methods to better serve the children of the county.
Hoboken High School has just implemented a new approach for the 2005-2006 school year, in which each of the grades plus the alternative school would be broken up into “grade houses,” a type of spin-off inspired by the different houses of the Hogwarts School in the famed Harry Potter books. Each “house” will have its own set of assigned administrators and staff, which will cater to the group’s particular needs in hopes of improving the learning community for the students.
Also this year, the Business Coalition for Educational Excellence (BCEE) at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce honored one North Bergen school, three West New York schools and six Union City schools as “Just for the Kids” New Jersey Benchmark Schools. To be selected for benchmark status, schools must do well on state assessment tests for grades four through eight in the Just for Kids school reporting system. This also applies to 11th grade at the high school level.
The schools being honored were North Bergen’s Horace Mann School, West New York schools number 3, 4, and 5, and Union City schools Jefferson Elementary, Hudson Elementary, Gilmore Elementary, Christopher Columbus School, Robert Waters School, and Woodrow Wilson School.