School officials mull new building options

In 2003, Monroe will see 16 classroom trailers and
a new referendum

By sandi carpello
Staff Writer

School officials mull
new building options
In 2003, Monroe will see 16 classroom trailers and
a new referendum
By sandi carpello
Staff Writer

Three months after Monroe voters rejected a $113 million school construction proposal, the district’s ad hoc committee is taking steps toward devising a new plan.

That plan, officials hope, will be presented to voters in a referendum by next September, said Board of Education President Joe Homoki.

The 50 members of the ad hoc committee have discussed several possibilities for a plan that would ease district overcrowding and still be an attractive venture for the entire voting community.

"The purpose is not to make a decision," Homoki said. "The purpose [of a recent meeting] was to look at what the possibilities really are."

The previous plan — proposed because projections call for 300 to 350 more students in the district each year for the next five years — was to build a new high school on Applegarth Road, convert the existing high school into a middle school, and convert the existing middle school to an elementary school. The proposal was defeated in September by a vote of 5,510 to 3,744.

Homoki said the ad hoc committee discussed the possibility of resubmitting the original plan, but noted that "it is not really an option."

One alternative discussed is to find another location to construct a new high school, while another option, and probably the most feasible according to Homoki, is to build a new middle school for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students, while turning the Applegarth Middle School into an elementary school. The plan would create more space at the Woodland and Brookside schools by taking out the sixth grade.

Homoki said building a new middle school is probably the best plan for the community.

A new high school, he said, may be too expensive for the community at this time.

"I don’t think we’ll be able to build a high school some place else because the cost will be very high," he said.

A new middle school may cost "less than half" the amount of the recent referendum, according to Board of Education member Jay Ellis Brown.

Brown has suggested that the middle school plan is the best option because it addresses "most of our needs" and will likely be supported by the community. He said he hopes to proceed with that plan, and a few years later, "expand the existing high school to accommodate the larger enrollment that is heading that way."

The Board of Education will meet Jan. 15 for a more extensive discussion on that matter.

As a temporary solution to overcrowding in the classrooms, the district will place 16 trailers outside schools at the start of the next school year.

Under the advisement of MRM Architecture in North Brunswick, the district will place two trailers at Monroe Township High School, eight trailers at the Applegarth Middle School and six at the Brookside School.

"Each trailer will be a classroom in itself," said Homoki, who noted that each will house approximately 25 students.