ROBBINSVILLE: Sharon school addition project delayed

The new completion date for the portion of Sharon Road Elementary School is anticipated to be Oct. 31, with students attending Pond Road Middle School instead, school officials reported at last month’

by Amy Batista, Special Writer
ROBBINSVILLE — School officials have announced weather-related delays in the new addition project at Sharon Road Elementary School.
   The new completion date for the portion of Sharon Road Elementary School is anticipated to be Oct. 31, with students attending Pond Road Middle School instead, school officials reported at last month’s Board of Education meeting.
   ”All the other projects, the cafeteria expansion at Pond Road and all the upgrades to the core facilities at the Sharon School will be completed in time for September,” said Superintendent of Schools Steven Mayer. Board Vice President Matthew O’Grady, on behalf of board liaison Thomas Halm who was absent, updated the board during the finance, facilities and transportation report of the March 25 board meeting.
   In an email, Mr. Mayer also said there were early permitting delays, as well as delays regarding JCP&L moving electrical poles onto the property.
   Officials further noted that any unused funds will be returned as debt service relief once the project is completed.
   Business Administrator Robert DeVita noted that the contractors submit for billing as they complete work or they bring items onto the work site.
   ”We don’t prepay them for anything,” said Mr. DeVita. “We really haven’t paid them out that much money because of the weather at this point in time.”
   The board authorized a change order with Lighton Industries, Inc. for the Sharon Road Elementary School and Pond Road Middle School renovation and expansion project.
   According to the change order, renovation including the site work at Sharon and addition to Pond Road Middle School will still be completed by the original contract date.
   ”That credit is partially related to the extension,” Mr. O’Grady said. “We did approve an extension to the completion date of Oct. 31. I would just caution that that’s the date. They are going to try and still work to try and finish before Oct. 31, but I will also caution and say that would assume that we have normal weather between now and then.”
   During his report to the board, Mr. Mayer addressed a meeting with parents on March 12 regarding the progress at Sharon Road Elementary School.
   ”Last week, I met with parents of rising third graders,” said Mr. Mayer, adding that around 200 parents attended. Our plan is to have those third graders go to Pond as fourth graders and really stay there the year.”
   Pond is highly skilled at working with fourth graders, he added.
   ”Leaving students in a school home for the year seems to make the most sense even though the building will come online in the middle of the year,” Mr. Mayer said.
   The concept of busing the students who are not currently eligible for transportation in town because they are inside the board policy limits was a topic that arose during the meeting.
   According to the letter dated March 21, the board is exploring the possibility of instituting a subscription-busing plan for Pond Road Middle School students currently residing in the developments of Town Center and Foxmoor.
   According to state law, districts are required to provide transportation to elementary students living beyond two miles from school. As such, students living within a two-mile radius are not entitled to district sponsored transportation, and districts do not receive state aid for students bused within these boundaries.
   ”Our finance committee commissioned me to send a letter out to next year Pond parents that would evaluate interest in a concept called subscription busing,” Mr. Mayer said, adding it would be at the cost to the homeowner.
   The cost of the subscription busing is estimated to be $350 to $500 for the year and was offered to fourth through eighth graders, a total of 377 students, he said.
   Mr. DeVita addressed the concern raised about taxpayers who could not possibly afford the busing.
   ”Free and reduced you can’t discriminate based upon someone’s ability to pay so they use the mechanism of free and reduced lunches as I am assuming those people would be free at that point in time,” he said. “What you have to do then is depending on what the bus route looked like is potentially bump up the costs of other people to break even.
   ”We always ran in the red a few bucks at the end of the year,” Mr. DeVita added, referring to a previous subscription busing experience.
   ”We will let that process unfold,” Mr. Mayer said, adding that the board will take a look at the busing policy next month since it does not have a subscription busing policy at this point in time.
   ”We need to assess the interest then the board needs to develop a policy and come up with those parameters,” he said, adding that next year could be a pilot or a permanent change to the board policy.
   ”It would need about 50 people to say yes I am willing to make that payment,” he said. “So we set up a special email account for the letters. They just click on the link and we’ve already gotten 15 or 20 responses.”
   According to the letter, if you would subscribe to receive bus services next year at a cost of $300 to $450 for the year due June 30, 2014, please send an email by March 31, 2014. The email is [email protected].
   ”I haven’t read all of them,” Mr. Mayer said, adding the ones he read so far were all positive.
   Pond students currently walk or are driven by parents, he said.
   Board Member Sharon DeVito expressed a concern over who is going to police who gets on and off the buses and who in the district is going to be responsible to collect the payment.
   ”We did discuss at the committee that payment would have to be in full before there was a bus,” Mr. O’Grady said. “People who paid would have some sort of identification card.”
   There is a lot of work to be done before this can come back to make a decision, he said.