BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer
‘Boondoggle.” That’s how Four Seasons resident Ray Murray described the proposed new middle school on Ellisdale Road at the Nov. 17 Upper Freehold Regional District Board of Education meeting.
The board is proposing a $39 million referendum to build a new middle school on 40 acres in Upper Freehold, belonging to Princeton Nurseries. The site is across the street from the nearly 400-home age-restricted development where Murray lives. The plan is scheduled for a public vote on Dec. 14.
Murray said many of the senior residents in the development are not against the school, but against the “location, location, location.” Murray also called the idea of needing 40 acres for the new middle school site “ridiculous,” and asked where in Newark, for example, would 40 acres be found to build a middle school.
Board President Jeanette Bressi told him that the board had only one option for the new school, and it was the Ellisdale Road site.
“It’s Ellisdale Road right now, or we don’t have a school,” Bressi said, explaining that the board completed an “exhaustive” 18-month land search, and this was the only suitable site it could find.
The board explained why it chose the location in a published fact sheet to be distributed to the entire district. According to that document, the Ellisdale Road site can support using city water as opposed to the wells located throughout the rest of the township. The document also states that the new school would be able to connect to an existing sewage treatment plant that now serves both the Four Seasons and Heritage Green developments. This would save money as opposed to building a treatment plant on the site, according to school officials. The board also chose the land because it feels that there is room for the needed recreational activities and for future growth.
Murray dismissed Bressi’s claim that this was the only site in the township that could support the proposed school.
“If this referendum is defeated, you will find another [site],” Murray said.
Murray said the school would not require all 40 acres because it could use the existing athletic fields at Byron Johnson Park. He also objected to the condemnation of the Princeton Nurseries property for the school.
Superintendent Robert Connelly said that Byron Johnson Park’s fields were sodded and not appropriate for physical education classes and that while they would welcome the use of the park, it is not a substitute for having fields on the school premises.
Murray asked the board if Allentown children would have to be bused to the new building. Connelly said that transportation within two miles of a school is usually called “courtesy busing,” but in this situation, it would be considered safety busing, since children cannot walk where there are no sidewalks.
“You can’t force children to walk that distance?” Murray asked.
Murray then asked about who would pay for the busing, and board member Robert Cheff said that Allentown taxpayers were already paying their share for busing they do not use, with the exception of kindergartners and special needs students.
Resident Lisa Murin, who is a teacher in the Millstone school district, said the issue of building sidewalks would eventually be addressed by the board.
“The impact of the middle school is too great a thing to push down,” she said. “When the time comes, they will get them there safely, [either by] sidewalks or bus.”
Murin added that she has been forced to teach in a trailer in Millstone, and there have been health issues due to mold contamination there.
Cheff said the board has almost three years to figure out how to get sidewalks and how to pay for them.
If approved, the new school is scheduled to open in 2007.
Bressi said the board has gone to the state Office of Smart Growth for advice, and has also spoken to Ellisdale Road residents.
“None of this has been done in a vacuum,” Bressi said.
Murray also said that putting a school on Ellisdale Road would force Monmouth County to build the controversial westerly bypass.
The planned bypass was a condition of approval for developer K. Hovnanian when the builder won approval for the Four Seasons development.
Allentown supports the roadway while Upper Freehold is vehemently opposed to it.
Connelly later said that traffic at Main and High streets drives the bypass.
“We feel neutral. We’re not for or against it,” the superintendent said.
Bressi said that the westerly bypass was one of the “hottest topics” in the township, and that the school has nothing to do with the road.
“Linking the school to the bypass is unfair. There are about 500 homes on Ellisdale Road,” Bressi said. “If we don’t need a bypass for 500 homes, why do we need one for a 32-classroom school?
“When we start linking politics to our children’s education, inevitably, our children will suffer,” she added.