Builders
hit a wall at school boards convention
Debacle at SCC yields frustration
and uncertainty
Friday, October 28, 2005 • BY JOHN MOONEY •
Star-Ledger Staff
Paul Emilius sat pensively as public
school officials and others walked past the modest booth for
his Sussex County engineering firm, few of the
conventiongoers stopping for anything more than a
brochure.
"It's slow, really slow," said Emilius,
vice president of GEOD Corp. in Newfoundland. "School
building is just not on their radar. ... It's
dismal."
What a difference the state's school
building morass has made at the state school boards
convention in Atlantic City this year.
In the last few years, the mood on the
cavernous floor was almost giddy at the prospect of the $8.6
billion set aside in 2000 for school building in New Jersey,
the nation's largest school construction program at the
time.
It made the annual convention of the
state's school leaders a required stop for scores of school
architecture, engineering and construction firms.
But all that has changed in the last
year, as the state's Schools Construction Corp. ran out of
money with a fraction of the promised schools ever built and
questions ongoing as to how it spent the funds. Now, there
is deep uncertainty when -- and whether -- there will be
more.
Among those hit directly in their
wallets, the firms at the Atlantic City Convention Center
this week said business has not dried up altogether, with
many local communities moving ahead with school
projects.
The number of architects on hand, for
instance, was only a slight drop from last year.
But along with their banners, business
cards and oversized illustrations, the firms also brought a
clear sense of frustration with the state's
turmoil.
Architect Harry Pettoni stood before a
huge rendition of Elizabeth's School 32, a grand brick-
and-glass structure that Pettoni's Hamilton firm
designed.
But the school is little more than its
drawings, as it didn't make the list of SCC projects to be
completed with the remaining available money.
"It's only funded to (finish the)
design," said Pettoni, vice president of Gilbert Architects
Inc. "Everybody wants it done, but we all wonder when it
will be."
It's not just the builders and architects
who are frustrated. At a morning session on facilities
planning in urban districts, the SCC troubles were a
frequent lament.
Urban districts have been hit the worst,
as the SCC was created to fully fund their projects under
the mandates of the state Supreme Court's Abbott v. Burke
rulings, amounting to $6 billion of the $8.6
billion.
With the SCC's work now virtually frozen,
so are all but a handful of the Abbott projects. Left
waiting is a new high school in Phillipsburg, where nearly
three dozen trailers are needed to house
students.
"It was supposed to be Abbott and SCC,
and we got Abbott and Costello," said Steve Zarbatany, a
board member in Phillipsburg. "We did everything we can, and
we're still nowhere."
Much of the workshop's discussion was
focused on the districts proceeding with their own planning
while the state decides SCC's fate. A theme was "seize of
the power."
"Rather than point the fingers, let's get
things moving in a better way," said Vincent Myers, a
principal with NJ/K-12 Architects in New
Brunswick.
Zarbatany had his own solution, once he
had marched down to the SCC's booth and voiced his
complaints. "We need to get us all in this room with the
state Department of Education and the SCC, and lock the door
from the outside," he said.
At the SCC booth, there was little sign
of its problems, nor many visitors, either. Staff members
said SCC policy prevented them from speaking to the media,
but one said people coming to their booth have been "mostly
positive."
"We're waiting with everyone else to what
is going to happen next," he said.
In the next aisle, Philip Moss voiced the
same uncertainty, but with some amusement.
The Doylestown, Pa., engineer has been
doing school construction work in New Jersey since 1992 and
said he watched how all the companies flocked to the state
when the construction program was launched in
2000.
Now as the money dwindles, some are
starting to look to other states. Moss said his small firm
is content to stay put, knowing full well the need for new
and better schools isn't going away and districts will find
a way to build them.
"When the money all goes, we'll still be
here," he said.
John Mooney covers education. He may be reached at (973)
392-1548 or jmooney@starledger.com
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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