School district facing Dec. 17 deadline to submit additional info to state

SPARTA -- Sparta school officials have asked the state for more time to comply with an application seeking permission to build a new high school on property located in Station Park. The state has given the school district until Dec. 17 to forward the additional information to be considered to secure an exemption from Highlands legislation that governs part of the property behind the existing high school off Route 517. Failure to do so, the state has said, will result in forfeiture of the application and bring school officials back to the drawing board for answers to solve the problems of overcrowded classrooms and a growing student population in the township. We’re not making any progress on this and time is passing,” said school board member Paul Johnson, at a board of education meeting this week. “We’re being asked to pony up, and I don’t think we are.” Schools superintendent Thomas Morton had anticipated “something in writing” from the Department of Environmental Protection, by Dec. 1, after meeting with representatives from the state Division of Watershed Management in October to discuss the school district’s application. What school board received was a letter asking for more information and relaying the latest deadline. DEP had initially given the school district 30 days to comply with the application back in September, but reconsidered after the meeting with the superintendent and school board member Jonathan Rush in Trenton. At the time, Morton said he was reluctant to spend upwards of $300,000 of taxpayer’s money to submit additional material, such as aerial photos and engineering plans, without the board having settled on one of two sites to build the high school on in Station Park. “The way I read the Dec. 1 letter is the same way I read the Sept. 23 letter - and that is insane,” said Morton. “It’s idiotic to spend $100,000 on a school that they (DEP) may say no to the next day.” Schoor DePalma Inc., the engineering firm hired by the school board to gain site approval, has told the state it is making progress to meet the listed Highlands Act exemptions. In a letter to the Division of Watershed Management, Schoor DePalma said it would submit the latest revised plans at the earliest time possible. “It appears we are now being told to fish or cut bait,” said Johnson. “Do we have confidence after being told after 30 days, and then 15 days, that the state will grant permission. I don’t have a lot of confidence in Brandon Phillips (Schoor DePalma project manager). We’re putting our necks back in the noose if we don’t deliver.” Meanwhile, the township council continues to take a wait-and-see approach before agreeing to turn over any land that the board of education needs to construct the new high school in Station Park. Taxpayers may be asked to carry the burden of a proposed 300,000 square-foot building, which is now estimated to cost $109.1. School officials are hoping to build the new school on land that comprises township soccer fields No. 1 and No. 2 in Station Park, and the high school’s softball fields. Morton said 1,180 students were projected to attend the high school this academic year, the highest enrollment dating back to 1974. After classes commenced in September, school officials reported an additional 52 students had enrolled from the 1,180 that had been projected for the current year. Morton said if the current enrollment trends continue, the high school could be above capacity by at least 300 students in 2008-2009. However, enrollments for K-4, grades 5, and 6-8 are actually down from the projected numbers for this year, said Kathleen Monks, assistant superintendent for curriculum and development. School officials were hoping to pass a referendum this month that would have allowed them to construct the new high school at upwards of $93 million, but the vote was abandoned. Morton said that if the referendum would have succeeded, some plan to address the growing student population needs to be in place by the 2007-2008 school year.