With additional money being generated through the state, a plan to move the North Bergen campus of the Hudson County Schools of Technology – a public high school accepting bright students from all Hudson County towns – to Secaucus seems to be on the agenda again after being set aside in 2011.
The move would not affect the Montgomery Avenue campus in Jersey City, one of the concerns that were raised when the project was proposed.
The new facility will move to a site currently occupied by a dinosaur park, which recently received a two year extension on its contract.
“I’m guessing they will start construction after the contract with the dinosaur park expires,” said Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli.
Freeholder Bill O’Dea said that by having the Jersey City campus remain where it is, he has no objection to the Secaucus location.
The Hudson County Board of Freeholders is expected to revive the plans over the next few months for a possible approval in early 2015.
“The Jersey City campus will remain as is – they’re adding classrooms and a new gym — which was my biggest concern of losing County Prep from Jersey City,” O’Dea said. “Since the Jersey City campus remains intact, the concerns I had about the remote location have been ameliorated.”
The county applied to the New Jersey Schools Development Authority in 2011 for funding that would revive a project first suggested in 2001, in order to secure the millions of dollars needed to construct a new campus on property already owned by the county in Secaucus.
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 Avenuein North Bergen, and CountyPrep, at 525 Montgomery St.in Jersey City.
But the project was stalled partly by the downturn in the economy.
The original plans called for building a new Schools of Technology campus in Secaucus’ Laurel Hill park, a county-owned park that could accommodate 480 students from North Bergen and additional students from the campus in Jersey City. Both properties would then be sold to help cover the costs of the new building.
The new plan would leave the Jersey City campus alone. It was always a school structure and recently renovated. The students would move from the North Bergen building, a converted 100-year-old factory.
Although the North Bergenfacility has been modified significantly, officials said the place still had problems. Also, Tonnelle Avenueis increasingly becoming a dense commercial area and, officials said, the school does not fit in with the type of development taking place around it.
O’Dea was among the outspoken critics of the original plan and demanded that Schools of Technology keep a small satellite campus open in Jersey City, probably somewhere in the Journal Square area.
O’Dea and other Jersey City freeholders in 2011 said they were concerned about how remote the Secaucus campus was, and the toll traveling to and from it would have on students who come from other parts of Hudson County such as Bayonne or Kearny. By keeping a full facility in Jersey City – which is mostly attended by kids from Jersey City, Bayonne, and some from North Hudson, kids would be less burdened.
Could be a good thing for Secaucus
The original estimated cost for the building was nearly $200 million although the latest plan appears to be about $150 million if approved. The state would pay about 59 percent of the total cost, while the county would have to pay the remaining $61.5 million.
The move comes at a time when Secaucus has authorized the expansion of its existing middle school, and raised questions about what the impact might be on the local school system.
Mayor Michael Gonnelli, who had expressed some concerns several years ago when the project was first proposed, said the new proposal looks more viable.
“We didn’t have a lot of information back then and it was a much bigger project,” Gonnelli said. “It looks to me that the county has put a lot of money into its Jersey City school, and that part of the school isn’t coming over to Secaucus. This is a smaller project than first proposed. This reduces the scope and the number of buses that will be coming into Secaucus.”
Gonnelli said people in Secaucus had raised concerns about increased bus traffic, “But the county has come up with a plan that would have the buses coming off of [Turnpike exit] 15x and along County Road, not on County Avenue or other streets. There is a positive. This will be a beautiful facility and provide opportunities for Secaucus kids.”
There is a potential for expanding programs to local students through cooperative agreements made possible by the move, not possible previously because of how remote the current location is to Secaucus.
“The only downside may be where it is located near the wetlands,” Gonnelli said. “But I’m going to meet with Bill Sheehan [the Hackensack Riverkeeper] and our environmental committee to discuss it. The project is being proposed for uplands, and we might have an opportunity to provide some environmental education programs as a result of this.”
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com