School building plan
coming to vote soon
Proposal should
provide for district
through several years
BY CHARLES W. KIM
Staff Writer

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — District officials believe that the proposed $46 million building plan will prepare the school district for the 21st century.

"We need more space. The teachers and principals have been very creative in creating parity in our older schools," Jeff Scott, assistant schools superintendent, said Tuesday.

The district’s plan will go to the voters for approval on Dec. 9.

Polls in the township will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The plan is designed to modernize several of the district’s older elementary schools and add on slightly to the middle schools to keep pace with the continually growing enrollment.

According to the district’s most recent projections, there will be 257 more students than seats next year, and that figure will rise to a deficit of 581 seats by the 2007-2008 school year.

As a short term solution, the district is using portable classroom trailers to house the overflow.

Currently, the trailers house about 150 students, according to Scott.

"Trailers are expensive," Scott said.

The building plan, according to the district, is to provide parity with the newer schools by guaranteeing an average class size of 23 students, provide separate cafeterias and gymnasiums, provide separate art and music rooms, and make sure that "open space" classrooms now have walls from floor to ceiling.

Scott said that, under the plan, no building would have a capacity larger than 700 students, in order to keep class sizes down.

Brunswick Acres Elementary School would pick up eight new classrooms and provide alterations to 13 others.

Cambridge will gain six new classrooms and two new kindergarten classes.

Constable will get six new classrooms and alterations to six others, according to the plan, and Greenbrook will get eight new classrooms and alterations to three others.

In addition, Monmouth Junction will see alterations to five regular classrooms and two kindergarten rooms.

Several of the schools will also get the core facilities to prepare food on the premises.

Currently, Scott said, food for the older elementary schools is prepared at Crossroads North and transported to the elementary schools for distribution.

"We deliver it hot for lunch each day," Scott said.

Each of the buildings will pick up additional parking as well.

Monmouth Junction will get a new circular drive to handle the traffic bottleneck that occurs each day.

"You have cars backing out onto Ridge Road," Scott said.

The air conditioning units will also be modified in each of the buildings, according to Scott.

"We will then have air conditioning in every part of every school," Scott said.

If approved, the district feels the overcrowding problem will be dealt with and there will be enough seats for the next few years.

Scott said the plan will be built in two phases, with some work being completed in 2005 and the rest to be finished in 2006.

Once completed, Scott said the district will have as many as 266 extra seats by the 2005-2006 school year, and still have an extra 76 seats by 2007-2008.

Of the $46 million price tag, Scott said that the state will put in about $13 million for the project, leaving about $33 million to be funded by voters.

Scott and the board are estimating the cost to be about $8 per month for the owner of a home assessed at $200,000.