Public invited to offer input.
By: Rebecca Tokarz
The school board Facilities Committee will hold two meetings June 3 and 17 so the public can view and comment on proposed school expansion plans.
The plans call for renovations and additions to five elementary schools to provide enough classroom space to accommodate projected enrollment increases and bring parity among the schools, officials said.
The public meetings will be held in the auditorium at Crossroads North Middle School on Georges Road. Architect Scott Spiezle of the Trenton-based Spiezle and Associates Architecture Group will answer questions.
Although changes are still being made to the plans, Assistant Superintendent for Business Jeff Scott said last week that the plans could cost South Brunswick taxpayers less than $30 million which works out to less than $100 a year over 25 years for a home assessed at $200,000.
The district could receive about 23 percent state funding for the total cost of the project, he said previously.
The proposals could go the public for vote in December.
The facilities committee is expected to recommend the school board add six more classrooms to its preliminary plans bringing the total to 27, which would reduce the proposed average class size to 23 students per class. Small group instructional classrooms also are included in the proposal.
The board could make final approvals at its June 30 meeting. That night, the board also will decide whether a December bond referendum vote is too soon to make acceptable alterations to the plans, get them to the state and inform the public. The board could move the date back to March 2003, school officials said.
The board proposed and approved conceptual plans May 12 that call for renovations and additions to Brunswick Acres, Cambridge, Constable, Greenbrook and Monmouth Junction schools. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems at Crossroads Middle Schools and the elementary schools will be replaced.
Newer schools like Indian Fields on Route 522, Brooks Crossing on Deans Rhode Hall Road near Route 130 and South Brunswick High School as well as older schools like Deans and Dayton schools will not be touched, school officials said.

