$178M
invested in now-shelved school projects
Dried-up fund angers
lawmakers
Friday, July 29, 2005 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL AND STEVE
CHAMBERS • Star-Ledger Staff
State officials spent at least $178
million on architects, land purchases and other preliminary
expenses for scores of proposed school projects that ended
up on the shelf this week when a $6 billion school program
ran out of money.
That spending, listed in Schools
Construction Corp. documents, includes the $10.4 million to
buy up a Newark neighborhood for a high school that's now on
indefinite hold. It also includes $19 million to lay the
groundwork for new high schools that had been planned for
Harrison and Phillipsburg until the money ran
out.
The money sunk into more than 100
now-suspended projects is one symptom of what officials
acknowledge was mismanagement and poor planning that
severely crippled the state's effort to rebuild and replace
crumbling schools in its neediest communities.
"We were trying to get as much positively
accomplished as we could with this pool," said SCC spokesman
Dominic DeMarco. "We're going to try to finish these
projects off with the next pool of money."
Set up three years ago to manage the
court-ordered overhaul, the corporation is on track to
complete just 70 new schools and make major renovations to
62 more with the $6 billion it was allotted by the
Legislature.
So far the SCC has spent a total of $4.3
billion, with barely half that going to construction
expenses. The balance has gone to professional fees, land
acquisition and overhead -- costs that a state inspector
general's report in April characterized as excessive and
wasteful.
With its costs soaring, the corporation
announced Wednesday it could afford to proceed with only 59
of 266 pending projects.
While politicians began debating how --
or whether -- to replenish the building fund, local school
officials are left to pick up the pieces of grand plans cut
short.
In Newark, for example, state and local
officials had drawn up what they thought was an efficient
solution to overcrowding in schools on the edge of the
city's North Ward. A pair of new schools, Benjamin Franklin
and Gladys Hillman-Jones, would educate children from the
time they started kindergarten until they reached eighth
grade.
The parking lots and recreation
facilities would be located between the schools, but they
were all tied to the Franklin project.
When the SCC issued on Wednesday its list
of projects that would go forward, Gladys Hillman-Jones was
on it; Franklin was not.
"We told them from day one that these
projects needed to move forward together," said Ray
Lindgren, assistant to Newark Superintendent Marion Bolden.
"Now what are we supposed to do?"
The SCC had spent $527,000 designing a
new school to replace Franklin Elementary School, where
parents of students contend that broken toilets, leaks and
cramped classrooms have gone unrepaired.
The cost overruns, aborted projects and
inconsistent decisions will shadow the SCC as it seeks to
persuade legislators to renew its funding and keep the
building program going.
Some of the lawmakers speaking out
yesterday made it clear the debate won't be
pleasant.
"I can't see how any legislator can vote
to approve one more dime, regardless of how legitimate the
needs are, before first cleaning up the SCC to make sure the
abuses don't continue," said Assemblyman Joseph Malone
(R-Burlington). "This is an abomination."
Supporters of the program noted pointedly
yesterday that the state Supreme Court ordered new schools
for the poorest districts in 1998, and said the state is
obliged to follow through. But acting Gov. Richard J. Codey
stuck to his Wednesday pronouncement that the funding debate
would be left to the next governor and
Legislature.
U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, the Democratic
gubernatorial candidate, said the shortfall in projects was
"tragic" and that getting a more-efficient program rolling
would be a top priority if he were elected. But he did not
call for any replenishment of funds in the
meantime.
His opponent, Republican Doug Forrester,
has been a dogged critic of the SCC and said that, if
elected, he would disband the agency.
Some, however, voiced concern that if new
planning and land acquisition grinds to a halt, the state
could wind up paying even more money down the
road.
Sen. Ron Rice (D-Essex) said he would
press for a vote in September on a bill he introduced that
would provide the SCC with $2 billion more for the state's
31 "special-needs" school districts and $1 billion for other
districts, to keep the program running another
year.
"We have to make sure we tighten up
management and get accountability, but there is a court
mandate and a great deal of urgency to move forward," Rice
said. "If we wait too long, the costs will be driven
up."
David Sciarra of the Education Law Center
in Newark, which championed the poor districts' cause before
the state Supreme Court, agreed that a reauthorization of
funds must be a priority.
"The challenge for the Legislature is to
get beyond the narrow view," Sciarra said. "We need to learn
from our experience and correct the operation of the program
to instill public confidence. But at the end of the day,
we're going to have to come up with more resources for the
program."
Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) said
that won't be easy in a state that now ranks third in the
nation in borrowing.
"I voted against the original $8.6
billion program because we didn't go to the people for a
vote," he said. "In my view, we shouldn't renew without
voter approval. We should be very cautious in that
regard."
And not every district was screaming for
help. In Union City, where three projects were finished or
under way and two more were approved Wednesday, officials
were philosophical, even with several projects left in
limbo.
"Sure, we got whittled down in this
round, but, you know, we got some really good stuff," said
Anthony Dragona, the district's business administrator. "If
we get additional funding, that would be wonderful. But if
not, we're still better off than we were two years
ago."
In other communities, however, there was
deep concern about the stalling program.
Irene Sterling, executive director of the
Paterson Education Fund, said a demographic bubble and
reduced dropout rate were expected to add 1,500 high school
students to the district next year. A new high school is
being built, but it wouldn't come close to alleviating the
problem.
"The consensus is more kids will drop
out," she said, "'because the more overcrowding, the less
support they get. That means the state eventually spends
more money on crime and additional social services. They
need to fix this now."
The SCC has come under intense scrutiny
since a Star-Ledger analysis in February showed that the
first six schools built by the corporation cost an average
45 percent more apiece than 19 schools built at the same
time without SCC involvement.
The latest SCC records show its completed
projects now include nine new schools, which were projected
to cost a total of $163 million but so far have cost $192
million.
Of the $4.3 billion spent by the
corporation to date, architects' fees alone have accounted
for $455 million. Another group of consultants, the state's
13 Project Management Firms, have collected $386 million,
the corporation's auditor reported earlier this
month.
Since the inspector general concluded the
SCC was plagued by inefficiencies and lax controls over
spending, the corporation has adopted a series of refoms. It
installed a new chairman, hired a chief financial officer,
scaled back on professional fees, tightened controls on land
acquisition and cost overruns, and adopted a policy of using
standardized architectural designs in multiple
projects.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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