Board told need for new
school is around corner
Planning, construction
for seventh facility
could take four years
ENGLISHTOWN — It will not be too long before a seventh high school will be needed to house the growing student population of the Freehold Regional High School District.
Board of Education members were presented with that assessment at their June 25 meeting. At present, the district includes six high schools that serve about 9,200 students.
Jeanne K. Perantoni, a principal with the SSP Architectural Group, Somerville, and Marcus Rosenau, project manager, also of the SSP Architectural Group, supplied board members with some insight into the future needs for the district.
"There are two sets of numbers," said Perantoni, "demographic, or what is projected, and capacity, or what you can hold in your school building."
Perantoni said state legislation enacted in July 2000 has caused changes in the figures that were previously presented.
"The state has a new formula to determine building capacity," she said. "Numbers that were calculated for capacity prior to the district’s current construction referendum are different from what they are right now."
Perantoni also explained that she has numbers to indicate the demographics, the projected number of students who will be entering the high school district. Those figures are based on numbers sent to the high school district from the elementary school sending districts in the eight towns that comprise the district.
Rosenau told the board that enrollment as of January was 9,214 students in the district. That figure includes 79 home instruction students.
At the end of the present referendum construction in September 2003 there will be a projected enrollment of 10,634 students, according to information provided to the board. The figures indicate there will be 87 unhoused students at that time.
"This shows, at the end of construction, we have a set number of unhoused students," said Rosenau. "We figured that by counting up all of the classrooms, after construction, and we came up with a total number of classroom stations for each school. Based on 24 students per classroom (the state guideline), which is the target number, we come up with the capacity at each school."
Rosenau said the projected enrollment figures for September 2005 indicate there will be 1,372 unhoused students in the district.
Superintendent of Schools James Wasser asked what the process would be if the board were to start planning for another referendum, this time with an eye on building a new school.
Rosenau said the short time frame would probably be a year to go to referendum, get all the planning done and get all the approvals.
"Then, another year would be needed to get all the design work, construction documents, state approvals and bidding," Rosenau said. "For a new high school you’re talking about two years for the construction. So you’re about four years out."
Dr. Steve Mishkin, board member representing Marlboro, said it may be necessary to look at building two new schools if the enrollment projections are carried out to 2009. He said, however, that the board can’t act on a second school at the present time.
"But the board members should keep the idea in the back of their minds," he said.
Bernice Hammer, board member representing Freehold Borough, questioned the accuracy of the figures that were being used for projecting the future enrollments.
Board members also questioned how much land would be needed for the construction of a new building. It was noted that a 60-acre parcel would probably yield about 40 acres of usable space, according to Perantoni.
In other business, a presentation was made by Donna Evangelista, administrative supervisor, involving the Global Citizen 2000 Project. The project was initiated by Rutgers University Director of Middle Eastern Studies Dr. Eric Davis.
Global Citizen 2000 is a teacher training and curriculum development program. Evangelista said its objective is to provide new and innovative learning experiences for high school students in the areas of economics, history, political culture and conflict resolution in a global context.
The program also provides for the teachers’ professional development through workshops and outreach services.
According to Evangelista, the program plans to incorporate advanced placement courses in the district via distance learning, satellite hookups, mini-courses and simulations.
In his report to the board, Wasser said that in an effort to eliminate smoking on school grounds signs will be posted at all six locations. The signs will state: "Please be advised. There is no smoking anywhere on school property, in accordance with Freehold Regional High School District policy."
"There will be no smoking on school property. That’s what the board wanted," Wasser said, explaining that the no smoking ban applies at all times at all school functions, indoors and outdoors.