District
studies legal action to get money for high
school
Friday, July 29, 2005 • By
PRECIOUS PETTY • The
Express-Times
PHILLIPSBURG -- A day after devastating
news that the Phillipsburg School District will not receive
long-promised state money to build a new high school,
Superintendent Gordon Pethick rallied and vowed to see the
construction project through by legal means if
necessary.
"We fought long and hard for this project
and we're not done," he said Thursday. "We've already been
in contact with our attorney."
The district is exploring every avenue --
including an appeal to the state's highest court -- that may
lead to the restoration of the subsidy for the project,
Pethick said.
"I wouldn't be surprised if very shortly
you see some action at the Supreme Court level," he
said.
Despite Phillipsburg's status as one of
New Jersey's Abbott, or most needy, districts, a state
agency announced Wednesday that it had nixed plans to pay
for the roughly $90 million high school with the last $1.4
billion of a special fund.
Phillipsburg and other Abbott districts
statewide were left in the lurch when the New Jersey Schools
Construction Corp. revealed it had only enough remaining
from a $6 billion fund to finance 59 of an anticipated 350
projects.
Phillipsburg's plan to renovate
Andover-Morris Elementary School for an estimated $13
million also was rejected by the SCC, Pethick
said.
The Abbott fund was created in 2000 after
the landmark Abbott v. Burke rulings, which require the
state to pay Department of Education-approved construction
costs for Abbott districts. Phillipsburg is one of 31 such
districts in New Jersey.
Former Gov. James McGreevey created the
SCC to oversee school construction projects and expedite
distribution of the $6 billion and an additional $2.6
billion for non-needy districts.
Pethick said it's essential that Abbott
districts, both those that made the SCC's "cut list" and
those that did not, stick together in their efforts to
wrestle additional funding from the state.
"We're not in this against any of the
districts that achieved the accomplishment of being on that
list," he said. "We're not in this to say to some other
Abbott district, 'Your kids don't deserve this; our kids
do.'"
Costly decision
Spokesman Dominick DeMarco said a special
committee of the SCC board of directors whittled proposed
projects to a final 59 using criteria such as safety,
classroom ratio and project progression.
"These were not easy decisions to make by
any stretch of the imagination," he said.
New Jersey School Boards Association
spokesman Frank Belluscio said the proposed projects
wouldn't have withstood DOE scrutiny if they weren't worthy
of funding.
"The projects are based upon five-year
facility reports. These districts have to identify the
construction that is needed and why it's needed. There is a
lot of documentation behind these projects," he
said.
State Sen. Leonard Lance,
R-Hunterdon/Warren, said the money shortfall is a symptom of
the SCC's malfeasance.
Recent reports found school projects
managed by the SCC cost 45 percent more than new schools in
the suburbs over the same period. Also a special state
investigation of the state agency earlier this year found
waste and potential for fraud.
"This is definitely not Phillipsburg's
fault," Lance said. "Phillipsburg has been victimized by
those who have run the school construction program without
accountability as have other districts throughout New
Jersey."
Lance, the Senate minority leader, said
he is in favor of borrowing to replenish the Abbott fund,
but only with voter approval. He would also like to see the
Abbott program analyzed to determine the exact cause of the
shortfall.
DeMarco said comparing the cost of urban
school projects to that of suburban school projects is like
trying to match up apples with oranges.
"There are far too many differences
between the two to make it an easy and logical comparison.
There are a lot of factors that are going to add to the cost
of an urban (school project) that you're just not going to
run into in a suburban or more rural setting," he
said.
Moving forward
David G. Sciarra, executive director of
the children's advocacy organization Education Law Center,
said Phillipsburg and other districts whose projects were
rejected will have a strong case if they end up in court
because the state is required by law to pay for Abbott
districts' construction costs.
However, Sciarra said districts should
reserve a Supreme Court appeal as a last resort and first
focus their attention on Lance and other
legislators.
"There's an urgent need for funding
across the board. The governor and the Legislature really
have to come together quickly and have a serious debate
about reforming the program and putting in more money to
keep it moving forward," Sciarra said.
Site work at the new Phillipsburg High
School location in Lopatcong Township is already under way
and district business administrator Bill Poch said it will
continue.
By the time that work wraps up in late
November, he is hopeful the district's problems with state
funding will be history.
"If the first work finishes at that
point, we're going to start the building then," Poch
said.
Before Wednesday's announcement, SCC
officials said they expected to bid for the facility
construction phase by the end of this year. The project
completion date was set for 2008, but is likely to move
further into the future in light of the recent developments,
Poch said.
Joan M. Ponessa, the director of research
for the Education Law Center, said she was shocked when she
learned the new Phillipsburg High School wasn't on the SCCs
short list because the project had progressed so
far.
"I thought it was given that they were
going to move forward with that one. That's been going on
for a long time," she said.
Currently, there are 31 trailers outside
the existing high school building, and the district
anticipates adding several more at the start of the 2006-07
school year, Pethick said. If the completion date is moved,
the district may have to install yet another round of
trailers, something they had not anticipated, he
said.
The longer it takes to resolve the
funding issue, the more it will cost the state, Pethick
said. "Time is truly money when you're talking about
construction."
Ponessa agreed.
"We're losing huge amounts of money by
doing this. The cost of construction is going up
dramatically. Every month they lose the whole process is
going to cost more," she said.
Reporter Precious Petty can be reached at 610-258-7171 or
by e-mail at ppetty@express-times.com.
© 2005 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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