BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer
Freehold Regional High School District principals have submitted their capital improvement requests for the 2005-06 school year to district administrators. The requests are being reviewed by Business Administrator Joan Nesenkar Saylor and Superintendent of Schools James Wasser.
District administrators have started work on the budget for the 2005-06 school year that will be presented to the public in the spring.
The requests were discussed at a recent Board of Education meeting held at the district offices in Englishtown.
Saylor said administrators intend to continue renovating each of the six buildings. The goal is to do the renovations one hallway at a time, she said. With that in mind, all six schools would see some improvements each year.
“One whole hallway would include all the classrooms, with new lights, floors, ceiling tiles and painting,” Saylor explained.
Colts Neck administrators are requesting additional bleachers for sports facilities at the school.
Freehold High School administrators have made a request to restore balcony seating in the auditorium.
“The auditorium used to have seating [in a balcony] a long time ago,” said Saylor. “They would like to do that, but I have to have a structural engineer check that out before we could proceed.”
She also noted that some lockers at Freehold High School have to be refinished and/or painted.
“One of Freehold Township High School’s big projects is additional tennis courts,” said Saylor. “They only have three courts. Therefore, they can’t play any matches and they have to go to Michael J. Tighe Park. They asked if that could be done.”
Howell High School administrators have asked for a review of the boys and girls team locker rooms. New lockers and updated bathrooms are needed in those areas.
Manalapan High School and Marlboro High School both need to have parking lots refurbished.
Saylor also noted that administrators at several schools are asking for window replacements and office space renovations, among other items.
“All of this depends upon the cap and what we can put into the budget,” she said. “That’s what we’ll be looking at.”
Board member Terry Kraft, of Howell, asked about looking into the possibility of placing seating along the sides of the auditorium at Howell High School.
Saylor said she had not heard of that request and was not certain if the auditorium could legally accommodate more people.
Board member Bunny Hammer, of Freehold Borough, asked if roofs were included in these funds and was told by Saylor that they are a separate item. Hammer also asked about the sidewalks at Freehold High School and was told that some concrete repair work had been completed at the school during the past few weeks. Saylor said she would check to find out if all of the sidewalk repairs had been completed.
The subject of placing artificial turf on the district’s football fields was another item brought up at the meeting.
“To [place artificial turf on] a football field, you’re talking between $600,000 and $800,000,” said Saylor. “That’s out of sight. We get no revenue from anyone using our fields. They get totally worn out just from use by our own people. We do not rent out our football fields.”
Wasser said the problem with the fields is that “nobody wants to give them a breather.” He said it may be possible to consider the use of other fields near a school, as Colts Neck High School has done.
The superintendent said the cost to place artificial turf at all six high school fields could be equated to the district’s total capital budget for six years with no other projects being done during that period of time.
“Our fields take a beating all over the district,” said Saylor, “but [artificial turf] is not an easy thing to justify.”
During the superintendent’s report, Wasser said the FRHSD was one of 15 districts to be monitored by the Monmouth County Superintendent of Schools this year. The county superintendent’s office is the local representative of the state Department of Education.
Wasser said the final documents covered everything from school level support, community planning, school objectives and curriculum items, to personnel procedures, hiring procedures, evaluations and the testing program. The report concludes with the comprehensive maintenance plan and facilities review.
“They selected one high school to go through with a checklist and they only give acceptable, unacceptable or non-applicable” as a rating, said Wasser. “We received acceptable in all the major areas [except one]. I really felt bad about this. We only made 42 of the 43 indicators. One light [bulb] was out in the auxiliary gymnasium.”
Wasser said once the commissioner of education has reviewed the report, it will be brought to the state Board of Education.