ROBBINSVILLE: BOE decides to expand schools, not build new one

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   ROBBINSVILLE — The Board of Education last week unanimously decided to have its architects move forward with designs to expand the elementary and middle schools instead of building a new school for grades three to five.
   The proposed $19.9 million expansion project, which would require voter approval in December, would solve the district’s growing enrollment problem by providing 29 new classrooms, which is enough room for 638 additional students. This option is less expensive than constructing a new building for 500 students ($29.9 million) or 750 students ($35.1 million), according to the district’s architect.
   Robbinsville residents rejected a 2010 referendum to construct a new school on land the district owns near Pond Road Middle School. At the time, the state had committed $9 million toward the construction of a new school, but there is no state money available anymore to help pay for either a new school or building additions.
   Therefore, Robbinsville property taxpayers would have to pay 100 percent of the costs associated with expanding Sharon Elementary School and Pond Road Middle School. Superintendent Steve Mayer said the tax impact will be about $195 a year for a home assessed at the 2012 township average of $385,000.
   The preliminary concept plan the board agreed to pursue March 22 would add 24 classrooms and a new gymnasium to Sharon School so it could become a K-4 building instead of its current K-3 configuration.
   Scott Downie, of Spiezle Architecture, showed the board drawings with an addition on the side of Sharon School closest to the cemetery property on Gordon Road. The expansion would require the removal of the baseball fields as well as the relocation of the playground now behind Sharon School to accommodate the construction of a new parking lot and bus loop as well as the building expansion.
   The kitchen and the multipurpose room/cafeteria at Sharon School would be renovated to accommodate the significantly larger school population. The small stage in the multipurpose room/cafeteria would be removed so there is room for about six additional lunch tables, Mr. Downie said. The HVAC equipment, windows, ceilings and floors in the elementary school also would be upgraded.
   At Pond Road Middle School, space inside the media center would be converted into five new classrooms. The kitchen and cafeteria also would be expanded, but plans to add another gymnasium were scrapped due to cost.
   Pond currently has 1,117 students, an enrollment that is 203 students over its intended capacity. If nothing is done within the next two years, the 276 second-graders now in Sharon will not be able to fit inside the middle school building when it is time for them to start fourth grade in 2014.
   The current enrollment at the K-3 Sharon School is 844 students. The district now uses five modular classrooms behind Sharon and also houses three kindergarten classes across town at the old Windsor School due to the lack of space.
   Adding 24 classrooms to Sharon School would allow the district to move the fourth grade at Pond back to Sharon and put all of the 10 kindergarten classes inside the Sharon School building. The 103-year-old Windsor School then would be sold and the proceeds applied toward the Sharon building expansion.
   Eventually, the five leased modular classrooms behind Sharon School also may be removed, but the district is taking a wait-and-see approach on that. Dr. Mayer said there was still too much uncertainty about the impact of the Town Center South project and the Gordon-Simpson project on the district’s schools to make any hasty decisions about removing the modular classrooms at Sharon School.
   The proposed 24 new classrooms at Sharon and five additional classrooms at Pond would provide enough space to meet current enrollment as well as the hundreds of anticipated students from housing developments that already have township approval, but are not yet built.
   However, the 2009 demographic study upon which enrollment projections are based did not account for the recent conversion of 150 age-restricted senior citizen units in the Gordon-Simpson development to three-bedroom homes for families of all ages. The township Planning Board, which denied the conversion last year, is challenging a recent Superior Court ruling that allowed the conversion to proceed.
   In addition, the 90-acre Town Center South project also has the potential to affect enrollment. The Township Council recently amended the Town Center South Redevelopment Plan to remove single-family homes as a permitted use. Instead, two-bedroom garden apartments are now permitted, along with duplexes, townhouses and a mix of retail, commercial and open space.
   ”The wild cards are always going to be what happens at Gordon Road and what happens at Town Center South,” Dr. Mayer said.
   Spring Garden Road resident John Ruch, the only member of the public to attend the meeting, urged the board to postpone the school expansion plans for one year in the hope state aid for school construction is restored in 2013 so local property taxpayers aren’t forced to pay 100 percent of the cost.
   Board members noted it would take two years to build the additions so postponing action for a year delays opening new classrooms until 2015.
   ”We can’t afford to wait,” board member Sharon DeVito said.
   Mr. Downie also noted that even in the unlikely event state aid becomes available in 2013, it will not return at the same levels as was offered before and, in the meantime, construction costs will have increased up to 2 percent.