EDITORIAL; Schools, towns, need solutions in the new year

Setting goals for the new year is a time honored tradition.
   This week we offer some suggestions for what local governments, public agencies and our readers should focus on in 2003.
   • The Monroe Township School District and residents of the town’s five senior communities need to work together on an expansion plan both can agree on.
   The senior communities were the driving force behind the defeat of the district’s $113 million expansion plan in September, voting against it by a margin of almost 4-1. Voters outside the communities supported the plan nearly 3-1, but had only about half the turnout of those in the communities.
   Seniors cited a host of reasons for defeating the plan, everything from faulting the location of the new middle school to accusing the district of overbuilding. They say there is a plan they can support. They now need to come to the table and prove it.
   At the same time, non-seniors need to recognize that some of these concerns were valid and work toward compromise. Putting the same plan on the ballot and working harder to get out the vote is not enough.
   The district needs to craft a smaller plan without sacrificing the goals of the original.
   And there needs to be an acknowledgement that the current high school — which is 25 years old — cannot be expanded any further without sacrificing some of the things that it a quality educational facility.
   The need to expand is clear — student enrollment is projected to reach more than 5,000 by the 2006-07 school year, with numbers reaching more than 2,600 in the grammar schools, more than 800 at the middle school and 1,500 at the high school.
   • Jamesburg has a problem, but it’s one it will need help in addressing.
   In November, it was forced to lay off four teachers, an administrator and three other full-time workers because of a $228,000 budget shortfall caused by the enrollment of eight additional special education students to out-of-district placements.
   The district and the council need to lobby for an increase in school funding, particularly money for special education.
   Jamesburg has little room for growth and little chance to increase revenue without a tax hike. Unless the state helps, it is the borough taxpayers who will suffer.
   • Circulation, traffic and parking issues near the Cranbury School have floated around for too long and the Township Committee needs to address them.
   Part of the problem is traffic during two, half-hour periods — the morning drop-off and afternoon pickup — at the school. Parents and school officials say the situation is dangerous. Others have complained about traffic backing up on Main Street.
   A proposal made in October includes construction of an access road from park Place to the lot with a traffic light at the intersection of Main Street and Park Place. Once that is in place, one of three plans could be implemented: One would close off traffic on School House Lane, creating a pedestrian walkway with traffic accessing Park Place; a second would use two entrances, one at School House Lane and one on Park Place and a third would keep School House Lane as the primary entrance to the lot with a widening of the drop-off area. Left turns out of the lot would be limited.
   The committee needs to choose between one of these options, or present another, more viable one, this year.