Hearing
explores school-building debacle
With few projects finished and
$6B gone, lawmakers seek ways to salvage the program
Tuesday, October 04, 2005 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL•
Star-Ledger Staff
Five years of frustration over a state
school construction program spilled over in a Trenton
hearing room yesterday, as lawmakers took testimony about
the program's failures and suggestions on how to repair
it.
"It's an embarrassment. And shame on all
of us for allowing this to continue," said Joseph Della
Fave, executive director of Newark's Ironbound Community
Corp.
The state embarked on a court- ordered
school reconstruction program five years ago, but the
Schools Construction Corp. has exhausted the $6 billion that
lawmakers allocated for a makeover of schools in 31
communities. The state is on track to construct only 132 of
468 projects proposed in those communities, and local
officials said during the day-long hearing that their
schools are still dangerously outmoded and
overcrowded.
In Camden, for instance, no schools have
been built since the state launched the program, and repairs
to a high school and middle school where exterior walls are
collapsing have been put on hold.
In Paterson, 20,000 students are using
classrooms that are overcrowded, cramped, poorly heated or
otherwise "educationally inadequate," lawmakers were
told.
And in the Ironbound, some 5-year-olds
cannot attend kindergarten because there is no classroom
space, and an internationally acclaimed robotics team is
taught at a table set up in a hallway.
Overall, of 70 new and refurbished
schools Newark asked the state to build five years ago, only
two are under construction and just five more have been
approved to be built.
"Seven down and 63 to go," Ray Lindgren,
executive assistant to Newark Superintendent Marion Bolden,
wryly told members of the Joint Committee on the Public
Schools. "It's a very long process that has us very
frightened."
Essex County lawmakers Sen. Ron Rice and
Assemblyman Craig Stanley held the hearing to assess the
effects of the slowdown in the school building
program.
The program has not awarded new
construction contracts since April, when the Inspector
General's Office found evidence of waste and mismanagement
draining millions from the program.
That investigation followed a Star-Ledger
report that showed the schools built by the Schools
Construction Corp. cost on average 45 percent more than
schools built by local school officials at the same
time.
In July, the corporation shelved more
than 200 projects that were in the works, saying it did not
have the funds to complete them.
The corporation's new chairman, Al
Koeppe, told lawmakers yesterday that a series of reforms
have been put in place to boost accountability and cost
controls.
Legislators suggested they would like to
retool the school building program to let local school
officials in Newark and other large communities handle their
projects directly in return for taking responsibility for
cost overruns or unexpected land acquisition
expenses.
"This reinforces the sense of urgency,
and we have to communicate that with our colleagues," said
Stanley, who is sponsoring legislation that would authorize
another $2 billion in state spending for school
construction.
Republicans on the committee expressed
dismay that waste appeared to have permeated the
construction program.
"This program may be the single greatest
fraud perpetrated on the children, taxpayers and citizens of
New Jersey," said Assemblyman Bill Baroni (R-Mercer), who
urged state officials to investigate malfeasance and seek
reimbursement from contractors found to have cheated the
state.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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