Municipal officials will be briefed this week on the latest plans to build a Hudson County Schools of Technology campus in Laurel Hill Park in the south end of Secaucus. The plans are likely years away, and would involve shutting down the existing campuses in North Bergen and/or Jersey City.
The New Jersey Schools Development Authority is reviewing a funding application from the county to secure millions of dollars to get the school built with state money.
The Schools of Technology are countywide public high schools to which the area’s students must apply for admission. The schools affected by the move would likely be High Tech High School, at 2000 85th St. and Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen, and County Prep, at 525 Montgomery St. in Jersey City.
“If the economy doesn’t turn around, I don’t think there’s much hope of getting this funded in the near future.” – Frank Gargiulo
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“I saw plans, and they gave me a general overview. But it was mostly preliminary and I haven’t seen anything since then,” Gonnelli said. “I don’t have a sense yet of what the impact is going to be for the community. That’s what we’re asking them to come in and tell us.”
Schools to be combined
Plans to build a new Schools of Technology campus in Laurel Hill, which is a county-owned park, have been in the works for more than three years, according to Schools of Technology Superintendent Frank Gargiulo.
Gargiulo has for years argued that High Tech’s student body of 480 coeds needs a newer building and better campus than what it currently has at the North Bergen site.
“The school is currently located in a building that was built to be a factory,” said Gargiulo. “There used to be an old lithograph company there. The building is almost 100 years old. And even though we’ve done extensive modifications to it, there are still some significant problems with the building we’re in.”
Also, Tonnelle Avenue is increasingly becoming a dense commercial area and, he argued, the school does not fit in with the type of development taking place around it.
“This area was no place for a school when this building was first picked for High Tech, and it’s still no place for a school,” he added.
Under current plans, the Schools of Technology would close its North Bergen site and its present Jersey City campus. But Hudson County Freeholder Bill O’Dea told the Reporter last week that he and other freeholders who represent Jersey City would require the Schools of Technology to keep a small satellite campus open in Jersey City, probably somewhere in the Journal Square area.
The current campuses in North Bergen and Jersey City would be sold to help offset the cost of building the new one in Secaucus.
$199M price tag
The costs associated with the project, however, could be a major hurdle and could delay groundbreaking for several more years, according to O’Dea and Gargiulo.
Two weeks ago, during a public presentation before the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Gargiulo told the freeholders that it will cost about $199 million to build the new Schools of Technology facility in Secaucus.
Given state funding formulas for vocational school construction projects in the past, Gargiulo hopes to get about 70 percent of the necessary funds from the state.
“The state generally funds schools through the debt service, and there’s a formula that determines how much the state will give,” he said. “For vocational schools, the state will pay 70 percent of the total cost, with some exceptions.”
Some school construction costs are not eligible for state funding, he said, and whatever costs aren’t covered by the state would have to either be offset by the sale of the North Bergen and Jersey City sites – or covered by county taxpayers.
Getting the state to put up more than $139 million to build a new Schools of Technology campus in the midst of a state budget crisis is a tall order, O’Dea noted.
“My concern is that we know the state is almost broke,” said O’Dea. “It’s nice that past performance shows that we may be able to get a high level of funding from the state. But until we get it, I think we have to look at what potential obligations the county is going to have, and how much county taxpayers can afford to pay.”
“I think he’s right,” Gargiulo agreed. “My concern is the same. Putting the money in place is going to be the biggest stretch. If the economy doesn’t turn around, I don’t think there’s much hope of getting this funded in the near future.”
The New Jersey Department of Education and the state Schools Development Authority still have to review and approve the county’s plans before the project can move forward.
Impact on Secaucus
Gargiulo said his next step will be to meet with elected leaders in Secaucus to get their support for the project.
The impact of having hundreds of students commuting into Secaucus will be among the top concerns the Town Council is likely to discuss in its upcoming meeting with Gargiulo.
Gonnelli said it’s his understanding that most students will be bussed into town.
“I would imagine they would come in either through Tonnelle Avenue and County Road or the Turnpike. But I don’t know all the particulars,” Gonnelli said. “When we meet with them, we’ll be asking a lot of questions.”
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.