I attended last night's forum. 90% of what is planned is really excellent. The best part of the plan is that the High School will essentially be a double campus covering 6 grades. The existing buildings will be grades 10-12 instead of 9-12, and that will free up space for growth (even though enrollment was higher than now in the 1970's). The new buildings will be built along American Legion Drive and Comet Way for grades 7-9. That will include all the 9th graders from the sending districts in what is being billed as "the 9th grade academy". This will be a State-of-the-Art school with everything modern and high-tech, and I susepct it will be extremely attractive to the 3 sending districts. The kids will be very eager to attend it, and more parents will say "yes" to this option. The presenters expressed serious concern that magnet schools will be draining away our best kids in the future, so this new school will be competition and function as it's own kind of magnet.
All schools in Hackensack will be getting air conditioning and security upgrades. Every one will have a single point of entry and there will be street improvements for drop-off purposes. Most or all bathrooms will be modernized.
Hackensack will have free pre-school for all kids that are 4 years old by October 1st. There are about 800, and currently only about 300 are enrolled due to space issues, and it's all the way in the South Ward at the old St. Francis school. They are renting from the Catholic Archdioscese
The 4 lower elementary schools are currently K-4, which is 5 grades, and maxed out for space. They will become Pre-K to 2, which is 4 grades. Having 1 grade less per building frees up space, just a little, for future growth.
A large parking garage for students and teachers will be built along Comet Way. They are discussing with the City Council about widening Comet Way and making it 2-way, but that is not finalized. They are also eliminating the eastern block of American Legion Drive (the city council is doing that), and adding it as green space to the school campus to help compensate for the loss of one athletic field. Kathy Salvo was there asking them fencing off space on the roof of the new building for school recreation purposes, and they said the architect will consider that.
Some of the savings:
1. The school system will no longer be spending $700,000 a year to rent that space from the Archdioscese, which over the cost of 30 years would be $21 million. Actually more because that cost will probably go up every year. So it's fair to say at least $26 million. (FYI, the Board of Education is doing a bad job talking up this aspect of the savings by not multiplying it out over 30 years and explaining that on their literature)
2. If this is all approved in the Referendum, the State of NJ will kick in $41 million. So that's $67 million
3. There are additional efficiency savings, the presenters said.
My outstanding concern was that all kids grades 3-6 from Hackensack will have to attend one school (currently the Middle School). The presenters said that the modern educational needs of pre-school and kindergarten kids is "so vastly different" from that of 5th and 6th graders that it no longer makes sense to put them all in the same building.
They said they have thought for years about shrinking the district sizes for the existing 4 elementary schools so there will be space for the existing grades, and then building a new school somewhere in central or south-central Hackensack. They couldn't do it, they couldn't make the numbers work. I tell you what, they can pay me $30,000 and give me all the enrollment data. It might take me some time, but I could do it, I'm sure.
What I think will happen in the future is that the school enrollment will continue to grow, and they will STILL be forced to build another new school in Hackensack, somewhere near Kansas Street. That could be a Middle School South, for Jackson and Hillers. And the existing Middle School would be a Middle School North for Nellie K. Parker and Fairmount. Or perhaps, since the old Middle School is pretty huge, it would nibble a bit into the territory of the South elementary schools. My $30K offer stands on the table, in a few years when they are ready to think about this again. I am sure I could do it.
Also, if I was on the Board of Education, I would immediately use eminent domain to seize and purchase the Cinelli Brothers metal recycling property off of Lodi Street. That way the Board of Education would own a piece of property for future school construction, and it would be just about where it needs to be geographically. They could then lease the property out to Cinelli or anyone else with a similar business plan. The cost of buying that property, spread out over 30 years, would probably be less than the annual rent from Cinelli. They should consult with the appropriate realtor on this, see if the numbers work. The property might be rented out for 10 years or more before any school construction occurs.