Voters will decide if they want two new schools built in North Brunswick during a special referendum on Dec. 8.
Thirty-two acres outside of the Renaissance development on Route 130 south could be designated as a fifth and sixth grade school, plus an early education center that would include the Board of Education’s administrative offices.
The decision is based on overcrowded conditions at the township’s four elementary schools, Superintendent of Schools Brian Zychowski said during a presentation at the Oct. 13 Township Council workshop meeting.
In a demographic study offered by the board, the following changes occurred from 1995 to 2015: enrollment increased from 4,523 to 6,302 students; the Asian population increased from 10 to 28 percent: the black population increased from 10 to 20 percent; the Hispanic population increased from 4 to 25 percent; the white population decreased from 75 to 24 percent; the limited English proficiency population decreased from 6 to 5 percent; the special education population increased from 4 to 12 percent; and the economically disadvantaged population increased from 12 to 39 percent.
Each classroom in the elementary schools has about 27 students, whereas the board would prefer 22 students for K-3 or 25 students in grades 3 to 5, Zychowski said.
“We don’t need demographic studies to feel the difficult pinch of having enough classrooms and rooms to address the needs of our children and basically our school population.
“What we do on a day-to-day basis is teach children. … The blood through the veins is the curriculum. … The more kids in a classroom, the more difficult it is to honor the integrity of our curriculum,” he said. Zychowski said there are 500 fifth-graders attending the four schools, which could free up six classrooms for the K-4 population at those schools if fifth grade is moved to a new building. Sixth-graders would be removed from Linwood Middle School, thus freeing up classroom space there as well for seventh and eighth grade students, he said, while also allowing for special education students to be brought in-house to Linwood.
The new school would be built so that it could be transformed into a 7/8 or 8/9 school if need be, Zychowski said.
“We’re building it under these middle school specifications,” he said. “It will be able to accommodate those bubble years.”
In terms of the early childhood center, 180 3- and 4-year-olds are enrolled at the former Our Lady of Lourdes school in Milltown, which closed two years ago but is being leased by the North Brunswick school district, Zychowski said, and that is bordering on maximum capacity.
In addition, the district could add an afternoon session to accommodate twice as many students in the program.
And by adding the Board of Education’s administrative offices to the second floor of the childhood center, the district would be able to sell the current property on Old Georges Road and put those funds toward debt service relief, Zychowski said. Plus, there is an $800,000 incentive from the New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) to include administrative offices in a school building, he noted.
In addition, the vision for the school property includes a 500-seat auditorium, a gymnasium and ball fields.
“We know that the mantra, the focus, the vision of this town is that really it’s one taxpayer, it’s one student/child, and that our facilities really become your facilities. There should be as much use by our townspeople, our taxpayers, our children as possible,” Zychowski said.
The superintendent said the DOE analyzes school enrollment five years into the future, but North Brunswick is taking into consideration the addition of children because of the new town center being constructed at the former Johnson & Johnson property on Route 1.
“Once this comes into play and there are children, we have to put them somewhere,” Zychowski said. “We want to do right the first time.”
However, the superintendent noted that even without the addition of new housing units in town — 1,850 alone expected from the town center over the next 10 years — the district is still overcrowded. He said DOEexpectsa9percentgrowthrate,or about 120 to 150 students each year, over the next five years.
Zychowski said the decision to build new schools instead of expanding and renovating existing ones is a result of longterm planning by school district officials.
“New schools will expand innovative and creative learning opportunities, aid in elementary to middle school transition, address developmental differences between age groups, relieve safety and security concerns, increase community spaces, reduce (the) cost of required pre-school services, reduce (the) need for outsourced facilities (and) increase transportation savings,” a slide during the presentation read.
In terms of transportation, Zychowski said right now 40 percent of fifth- and sixthgraders are being bused from the Renaissance residential development. If a bus holds approximately 54 children, seven or eight buses would be eliminated for the 420 children who would be within walking distance of the school. Since bus routes cost anywhere from $24,000 to $32,000 a year, that would be a significant savings to the township, he said.
Overall, Zychowski said the impact to taxpayers would be, at most, $24 per month, or $288 per year, on the average assessed home of $157,358, though he expects the number to be lower than that since it does not include tax ratables from the new town center, debt service relief or low interest rates for borrowing.
The referendum will be held 2-9 p.m. Dec. 8 in regular polling locations.
Should the referendum pass, the buildings could be ready by September 2018 or the following spring if there are no unanticipated delays, Zychowski said.
Contact Jennifer Amato at jamato@gmnews.com