Board puts public input off until action date
Resident asks where Township Committee members were
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

ALLENTOWN - Although approximately 30 people attended the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education meeting in the high school auditorium on Jan. 31, no public comment was permitted.

Interim Superintendent of Schools Robert Smith previously announced that he had expected the board to decide whether to go out for another middle school referendum at that meeting, but that did not happen. The board discussed needing more information to make its final decision, such as the price of land at the newly proposed school site on Breza Road.

The board was scheduled to meet again on Feb. 7, which was a day after press time, to discuss the possible referendum. It must arrive at a decision for a new referendum by Feb. 7 in order to have it on the April 17 Board of Education election ballot. Otherwise, the next possible referendum date would be in September.

Voters allocated $36.8 million for a new middle school on Ellisdale Road in a December 2004 referendum. The property has soil remediation and wastewater issues, and the board is considering changing the location of the school site to part of a tract on Breza Road, which is located in a sewer district. Voters would have to authorize any change in location or cost through a new referendum.

Hill International, the project manager, reported on Jan. 17 that the new middle school project is already $10.7 million overbudget without having put a single shovel into the ground. At the Jan. 31 meeting, preconstruction manager Paul D'Alto said that the Breza Road site would bring the budget overrun to $12.4 million, although that figure was estimated with a cost of $40,000 per acre for the site. Smith later said the landowner rejected the offer from the nonprofit Trust for Public Land (TPL).

When asked why the public could not comment at the Jan. 31 meeting, Smith said district policy and regulation specify that public participation would be permitted at regular public meetings or at any work session meeting during which the board votes on an action item. The board's regular public meetings are those held on the third Wednesday of each month.

"Because the board expects to take action in regard to a referendum on middle school construction at the work session meeting on Feb. 7, public comment will be taken in regard to the anticipated action item," Smith said. "We followed our rules on Jan. 31."

At the following night's Township Committee meeting, resident Bryan Scheff said he was concerned that the public had not been allowed to comment at the Board of Education meeting.

"For a decision of this importance, which affects the whole community, for them not to take comment one week before [making] the decision is very concerning to me," Scheff said.

Scheff also took issue with the Township Committee for not sending representation to the board meeting. He had gone before the Township Commit-tee at its last meeting and asked it to get more involved with the school issue. He said he was disappointed that no one from the committee had attended the board meeting.

"It will not help public confidence on what is going on," he said.

Mayor Stephen Fleischacker, who serves as the Board of Education's liaison, said the Township Committee provides a lot of support to the board even if members do not attend the meetings.

"Sometimes, because of local small-town politics, it is best not to [attend the meetings]," he said.

According to Fleischacker, the governing body recently helped the board set up a meeting between the board's professionals and the county engineer's office about the Breza Road site. He noted that the Township Committee and the Board of Education are distinct bodies that are elected independently by township residents.

"Rest assured, when they ask for our help, they get it," he said.

Fleischacker, a professional engineer, said he had provided information to them about historic pesticides. He added that the board is moving to a point of decision making and that once it has all the information it needs, "it will be up to us as residents to help and vote accordingly, assuming it goes to referendum."

Fleischacker said that no one wants to see taxes go up, but that everyone recognizes the need for a new school in order to eliminate overcrowding.