Waiting game continues without any idea where school project stands

Officials unaware if required information has been filed. Board schedules special public meeting SPARTA - The school board will hold an “out-of-schedule” public meeting 7:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 2, in the Mohawk Avenue School to discuss how to solve the district’s overcrowded classrooms. Douglas Chesnulovitch, school board vice president, said the meeting will include discussions on the proposed new high school in Station Park and options available to the district. “We’re going to review matters with the architect and the construction committee,” he said. “We’ll run the spectrum and I’m sure we’ll come up with a decision of some kind and move forward.” The construction committee, which held its first meeting last week, is made up of two school board members, the schools superintendent, and the architect involved in the planning and design of the proposed new high school. School board member Jonathan Rush said the committee was still in its initial stages, but hinted that construction would be on the meeting’s upcoming agenda. School board president David Slavin did not return phone messages and was unavailable for comment. Sparta school officials are trying to comply with an application seeking permission to build the new high school on property located in Station Park. The state had given the school district until Dec. 17 to forward the additional information to be considered in the district’s request for exemption from Highlands legislation which governs part of the property behind the existing high school off Route 517. Failure to do so, the state had said, would result in forfeiture of the application and bring school officials back to the drawing board. Chesnulovitch said architects and engineers hired by the school district have been in contact with officials from the Department of Environmental Protection, but was not sure what progress, if any, had been made. “There’s been some communications.” he said. “I’m confused myself as to what they (DEP) feel is missing - that’s part of the communication issue between one party and the other.” Schools superintendent Thomas Morton could not be reached for comment. School board member Paul Johnson said he was unsure if or what communication had been made between the district and Trenton. “I don’t know of anything that’s come back,” he said. “We can’t meet once a month. We’ve got to get things moving.” Morton had anticipated “something in writing” from DEP, by Dec. 1, after meeting with representatives from the state Division of Watershed Management in October to discuss the school district’s application. The school board then received a letter back from the state asking for the additional information and relaying the latest deadline. Initially, the DEP had 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 Rush in Trenton. At the time, Morton said he was reluctant to spend upwards of $300,000 of taxpayers’ 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. 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. No one on the school board has said if that information has been forwarded to DEP. School officials are hoping to build a 300,000 square-foot new school on land that comprises township soccer fields No. 1 and No. 2 in Station Park, and the high school’s softball fields. The project is currently estimated to cost around to $109.1 million.