BY MICHAEL ACKER
Staff Writer
SAYREVILLE – School officials have decided to move a special education program to a newer facility, a move that has some parents concerned.
The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to transfer the preschool special education program, which has about 75 students, from the Jesse Selover School to the Samsel Upper Elementary School next fall.
“I visited the area twice, and I am prepared to vote to approve this move,” board President Michael Macagnone said at the meeting.
Superintendent of Schools Frank Alfano said that the Samsel facility is much more conducive to the special education program.
Resident Colleen Clark spoke before the board about the move’s potential impact on her son, a student in the preschool program. She said she is concerned that students in the program will lose one-third of their classroom size and will lose attached bathrooms in each of the classrooms.
Selover School Principal and Director of Special Education Services Harold Bell responded that the change in classroom size would not be too significant and that only four of the classrooms at Selover have bathrooms in them.
“There is not a great disparity between room sizes,” Bell said.
Clark is also concerned about students sharing the gymnasium with older students at Samsel, and the preschoolers’ potential lack of access to playground facilities. Bell replied that outdoor playground space is being assessed for the program by the borough’s homeland security officer, Barry Eck. He added that the district is having playground equipment moved to the courtyard area of Samsel in July.
“There will be a specific play area that will be equivalent, if not better than what we have now,” Bell said
Bell said that overall, the move will be a positive one for students, who will have 13 toilets rather than seven at Selover School. He added that they will be moving out of one of the district’s older facilities and into one of its newest ones.
“[The Selover School] needs a lot of work to be upgraded to have such young children in there,” Bell said.
Addressing Clark’s concern that Samsel is overcrowded, Bell said the school was built for 1,300 students and currently has approximately 900.
“It is far from capacity,” Bell said.
The preschool students will have their own space, separate from the older students, Bell said, including the auxiliary multipurpose room. He said the idea came about to share the gymnasium from the Howell school district. Bell described the Howell program as one that trains older children as peer coaches and role models to help younger students.
The Sayreville district hired an inclusion specialist to assist with this task, and the environment will be controlled and specific with regard to activities, he said.
Bell noted that the majority of teachers and therapists in the program are in favor of the move.
Alfano added that having two full-time administrators at Samsel at all times will also help.
Tara Callahan, another parent of a student in the program, addressed the council after Clark, saying that she did not think it was OK for special education students to have to go to class on the third floor.
“I am very concerned about this move,” Callahan said.
Bell responded that students in the special education program will have their own entrance with a ramp. Macagnone asked that both Callahan and Clark take a tour of the facility with administrators, since they did not attend the one that the board hosted earlier this year. He said that none of the parents who attended the tour have voiced concerns about the move.
Callahan said she still disagreed with the move, and she felt that the board’s decision was made abruptly.
“If it is a matter of business offices, why don’t the adults move?” Callahan said.
Alfano said that he and Bell researched the move extensively and they believe that it is the right thing to do for the students.
“It is easier for Mr. Bell and I to say ‘Don’t do the move,’ ” Alfano said.
Board member Curtis Clark said the administration proposed the idea of moving the program months ago to the board. He said the space available at Samsel, and the access teachers have to their peers, makes the school an ideal location for the program.
“Change is difficult, and we realize that,” Clark said, “but enrollment figures are getting very high, the Selover School is aging, and we don’t have the money to fix it.”