Disputed high school to soon go out to bid
School officials say project is on target to open in 2011
BY JESSICA SMITH
Staff Writer

MONROE - While school and township officials are forging ahead with plans for the new high school, opponents say the project cannot move forward.

A legal appeal from environmental and citizens' groups regarding the land swap needed to build the high school in part of Thompson Park remains in litigation.

However, school officials have schematics in place and are proceeding along a timeline that calls for construction to kick off next summer.

"We are still planning to go out for bid for the new high school in January. That has been our target date, and we're still going with it," Monroe Board of Education President Kathy Kolupanowich said.

The new high school is slated to be built on a 35-acre portion of Thompson Park. The township received approval from the state in January for a land diversion that would trade 152 acres of borough land for the parcel, which was originally purchased with funding from the state's Green Acres program.

An appeal was filed in February by attorney Richard Webster of the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic, representing the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, New Jersey Public Interest Group and the local citizens' group Park Savers.

Opponents of the land diversion state that the wooded, 152-acre parcel is not of equal value to the open park land. The quality of the land is also subpar, Park Savers member Nancy Prohaska said, citing sewage lines above the ground.

"This is the kind of garbage they're giving back as pristine open space," Prohaska said.

Both Kolupanowich and Superintendent of Schools Ralph Ferrie declined to comment on the status of the legal issues. The township and Webster have recently filed briefs in the matter.

The township is required to provide clean title to the county for the land in question, but Webster noted that Nick Pengue, the principal owner of CAS Properties, still has a purchase option on it.

"It's far from clean title right now," Webster said.

Under Executive Order 215, an environmental assessment is required on the land where the school is to be constructed. This is done in order to assess the environmental impacts from the construction and operation of the school. Air quality, noise, traffic, and drainage are all considerations in the assessment.

"There is no indication that it's even being done, let alone when it's going to be completed," Webster said.

Also, the county can require the township to do Phase 1 environmental work on the site, which consists of looking into the parcel's history, Webster said.

While it has still not been officially determined whether the park land parcel was once a part of the Leni Lenape Bethel Mission Settlement, there are concerns that the site and any historical value will be disturbed or devalued by the school's construction there, Webster said. The Bethel Mission Settlement has been placed on Preservation New Jersey's "10 Most Endangered Sites" list for 2006. The groups Web site suggests a cultural resource survey on the land in order to determine possible archaeological resources from the settlement, which dates to 1746.

Assistant Township Attorney Marguerite Schaffer said last week that the township was awaiting a few surveys for the land involved in the diversion, and that these were to be completed in a matter of days. Deeds can then be filed to take ownership of the land.

The new high school is projected to be built by January 2011, and ready for occupancy that September.

"We've accomplished everything we need to do," Ferrie said.

But Park Savers member Michelle Arminio feels the township's application to the state for the land diversion was incomplete and, as such, should not have been approved.

"How can [the application] possibly be complete if the township still doesn't have possession of the land?" she asked.