Residents trying to save the Valley Road School want Princeton voters to say whether the historic school should be leased to a nonprofit interested in turning it into a community center.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Residents trying to save the Valley Road School want Princeton voters to say whether the historic school should be leased to a nonprofit interested in turning it into a community center.
The Valley Road School Community Center Inc., along with its umbrella organization, on Wednesday launched a campaign to collect enough signatures to put a nonbinding referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot. Kip Cherry, an alumna of the school and president of the Valley Road Community Center Inc., said Wednesday that signatures of 2,033 registered voters would be necessary in time for a deadline in July.
Her organization is the one that wants to lease the school from the Board of Education for a $1 a year for 100 years. The school board, saying it would make available only the part of the building available to interested suitors, earlier this year rejected a proposal by Ms. Cherry’s group.
Backers of the community center concept say it would provide needed rental space for area nonprofits, as well as space for meetings and performing arts. Ms. Cherry said her group does not have a firm handle on how much renovating the building would cost, although she thinks it would be less than $10 million. Work would include installing a new boiler, roof and windows and brick repair.
In a nonbinding referendum, the school board would not be compelled to take whatever action voters say. School Board President Timothy Quinn, reacting to the petition drive, said Thursday that the decision on the future of the building rests with the school board, the owner of the property.
”We’re looking to do what’s in the best interest of the community with this,” Mr. Quinn said in a phone interview.
He has been clear that the board is making available only the portion of the school fronting Witherspoon Street. The rest of the building will remain in the school district’s hands.
For its part, the municipality is eyeing the property for the possible expansion of the firehouse on Witherspoon Street. Mayor Liz Lempert said Wednesday that if officials think that option makes sense, the town would make a formal presentation to the school board. A council task force, formed earlier this year, has been looking at that possibility.
The petition drive came the same day as Preservation New Jersey, a nonprofit group, announced that the school was one of its top 10 most endangered historic places in the state for 2013.
Stephanie L. Cherry-Farmer, senior programs director with Preservation New Jersey, and no relation to Ms. Cherry, said Wednesday the school held historic significance and contributed to the local streetscape.
Valley Road, first built in 1918 and later renovated, was the first integrated public school in the Princeton area. Over time, it stopped being a school, and later became school district and municipal office space.
The district has been criticized for the lack of maintenance to the building. Former Princeton Mayor Richard Woodbridge, also an alumnus of Valley Road School, has been part of the efforts to save the building and vocal in his criticism, even likening the rear of the building to a “crack house.”
”I think the designation will make a big difference to the general public,” Mr. Woodridge said Wednesday of Preservation New Jersey’s list. “Who knows if the BOE or council is listening?”