The Upper Freehold Regional School Board has presented its plan for our district’s future. The board explored many options. After examining many suggestions from strategic action committees, they agreed that our elementary/middle school is overburdened in many ways. For many reasons, the most sensible solution is to build a new middle school for grades five through eight.
Eight fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms are currently housed in the annex building across the roadway, near the high school. This situation causes approximately 160 students to walk back and forth to the main building three times each day, every day, in all types of weather. This daily travel time amounts to 45 hours of lost instructional time in one year. Additionally, the high school must take back these classrooms in September 2007.
We have a cafeteria that cannot accommodate all the students. Due to the number of students in first and second grade, we have had to create two separate lunch periods. This year, with the number of third- and fourth-grade students, two separate lunch periods should be created. In two years, fifth and sixth grades would need separate lunch periods, and two years later, the same with seventh and eighth grades. In four years, we may very well need to open the cafeteria at 10 a.m. for the first period of lunch and serve the last lunch at 2 p.m.
We currently have three full-time physical education teachers with only two gyms available for classes. We have only one music room and one fully equipped art room for the entire school to use. Each year, our administrators need to find a creative solution for housing gym, music, art and Spanish classes. Many of these teachers have their materials on a cart in the halls waiting to go from class to class.
Our beautiful library is currently being used primarily by the first-, second- and third-grade students. They go to the library for weekly instruction and exposure to quality literature. We have only one full-time librarian who teaches these lessons. The amount of time available for fourth- through eighth-graders is limited. Most classes are only able to go to the library every two weeks for a book exchange period. Since the number of primary students has increased, the number of books purchased for those students has had to increase. Unfortunately, this leaves less money for books needed for students in grades four through eight. Students need to be exposed to quality literature during their entire school career in order to cultivate good readers and thinkers.
Our sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade band students practice on a stage that is too small for the number of students and their instruments. When the sixth-grade chorus and band performs its winter and spring concerts, there are many people in the audience who do not get a seat. The band students need to find another spot to have their weekly practices, when the PTA uses its money for a wonderful assembly. The auditorium can currently only house two grades at one time. This means that the PTA is spending more money for fewer children to see a program.
There are times when the number of students in the narrow halls causes a small traffic jam. Again, thanks to the creative solutions of the administrators and teachers, we have managed to reduce traffic accidents. Teachers in the classrooms located near the cafeteria and auditorium sometimes have more than 100 students waiting in the hallway, right outside the classroom. Student traffic in the halls is constant and noisy due to the number of students in the building.
This September, we had to convert one of our computer labs back to a full-time classroom. Now we have only one computer lab in the building to be used by over 1,100 students. Scheduling a class to use the lab is difficult. With the growing enrollment, it is only a matter of one or two years before this lab will need to be converted back to a full-time classroom.
Currently, the high school, middle school, and elementary school are on three different schedules. This means the buses have three runs in the morning and three runs in the afternoon. The amount of cars using the campus continues to be troublesome. When parents are invited to school for a class event, there are not enough places for parents to park. Buses needing to leave for the high school dismissal are sometimes blocked. Annex students have to cross the street while the high school students are dismissed. Primary teachers have over 100 middle school students passing their classrooms to reach the buses, and on rainy days, waiting outside the classroom until the bus arrives. Middle school athletes need to get ready for their after-school practice or game at the same time primary classes are using the gyms.
Parents in the community want a first-class education for their children, and teachers go above and beyond to enable that to happen. Unfortunately, the current building continues to be overextended. An addition to the current building would eliminate the few fields we have for athletic use. We would also need to add about 20 more classrooms, computer labs, library space, gyms, a nurse’s office, and a cafeteria to continue servicing the entire student body. Even with these additions, there would still exist many problems due to the number of students using just one building.
It is time to build a middle school on a separate campus and alleviate the overcrowding on this campus. By building a new, state-of-the-art middle school, we will have a facility where teachers can offer students the best education. This school facility would help meet the changing emotional needs of our adolescent children. In addition to regular classrooms that meet current size requirements, there will be art rooms, music and band rooms, sports fields, science labs, a library, a full-size gymnasium, and a modern auditorium. Many of these could be used by members of the community via community education classes, exercise groups, meetings and performances.
It would be wonderful to have a school built that would serve students and community members.
Dee Burek is a fifth-grade teacher in Allentown
Dee B urek
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