NJ News & Views

[Editor's Note: At 5:05 p.m. on January 25, 2010, this story was edited for style, content and accuracy.]

On Tuesday, January 26, Jackson voters that turn out for a district referendum will be asked to approve funding for improvement of public property.

As Jackson's public school enrollment continues to drop, that property could someday belong to someone else.

For the third time in less than a decade, the Jackson Board of Education will ask voters to approve a multi-million dollar referendum. This time the board is not seeking funding to construct a new school, but proposed improvements to aging ones that may not be cost effective - or necessary.

In 2002, the year Jackson voters approved a $103 million referendum by 10 votes, public school enrollment had grown by 414 students to a total enrollment of 9,167 students.

By 2005, the year voters defeated a referendum proposal to bond $32.5 million for construction of a seventh elementary school, but approved $11.7 million for improvements to Jackson Memorial High School and Christa McAuliffe Middle School, district enrollment had increased by only 69 students over the previous year, for a total enrollment of 9,758 students.

The district enrolled only 42 more public school students in 2007 than it had in 2006, totaling 9,862 students - an increase of 695 students over five years.

Although a district spokesperson previously told NJ News & Views that the October 2008 district enrollment had decreased by 60 students to a total of 9,802, the same spokesperson more recently provided different figures for that year.

According to a January 15, 2010 Application for School State Aid (ASSA) comparison, the district reported a drop in its October 2008 enrollment by 209 students, for a total enrollment of 9,653.

In October 2009, the district reported a further decrease in enrollment by 73 students, for a total enrollment of 9,580.

On Tuesday, the board will ask voters to approve four referendum questions that primarily fund improvements to the district's two high schools.

Prior to the construction of a high school in Jackson, students from that township and Manchester were bused to Lakewood High School in the Princeton Avenue location, according to Gus Acevedo, a former member of the Jackson Board of Education who discussed its history in a 2006 interview.

Acevedo said he was a member of the first high school class to graduate from Jackson Junior Senior High School in 1965 and not from Lakewood High School.

The Clayton Middle School was later built within walking distance of the building that was renamed Jackson Memorial High School in honor of those who died during the Vietnam War. In 1993, completion of the Fine Arts Center connected the high school and middle school in one educational facility now known as Jackson Memorial High School.

The Fine Arts Center separates the Clayton and Reider wings.

In January 2002, voters approved funding for construction of Jackson Liberty High School, which opened for class in September 2006.

In September 2006, a total of 3,022 students enrolled in Jackson's two high schools. Jackson Liberty High School opened with 706 students, while 2,316 students attended Jackson Memorial High School.

In 2007, a total of 3,062 students enrolled in Jackson's two high schools, increasing enrollment by 40 new students. Jackson Liberty High School enrolled 1,086 students, while Jackson Memorial High School enrolled 1,976 students.

In October 2008, a total of 3,075 students enrolled in Jackson's two high schools, increasing enrollment by 13 students. Jackson Liberty High School enrolled 1,379 students, while Jackson Memorial High School enrolled 1,696 students.

For the first time last year, the district reported a decrease in total high school enrollment.

In October 2009, the district reported a total of 3,032 students enrolled in both high schools - a decrease of 43 students. Jackson Liberty High School enrolled 1,343 students, while Jackson Memorial High School enrolled 1,689 students.

Jackson Liberty High School was designed to enroll many more.

In 2004, the Tri-Town News reported that the state-of-the-art school under construction could be expanded to three floors instead of two.

The following year, a neighboring school district was also investing in state-of-the-art improvements to its public schools, according to the October 10, 2008 article, "Schools Find Green Is Paying Off," by New York Times reporter Fran Silverman.

"Toms River Regional Schools in New Jersey put solar panels on all district buildings in 2005; since then the panels have generated 2.5 million kilowatts of energy," Silverman reported.

Toms River School Superintendent Michael J. Ritacco told Silverman that the district earned $1 million annually since installing the solar panels by selling extra solar energy back to the utility company and saved $650,000 in overall energy costs.

Those figures may be too good to be true for all schools.

Silverman reported that the Toms River district received $7.2 million toward the $20 million project from the State Board of Public Utilities and an additional $7 million in state school construction grants. It also applied for interest-free loans from the federal government. All of the aid reduced the cost to the district to $6 million.
 
However, Silverman also reported that the state is no longer offering the utilities grants because it cannot meet the demand.

Silverman said Ritacco continues to encourage school officials to purchase solar panels through special financing or new rebate programs.
 
“We tell other schools that the panels are great,” Ritacco was quoted in Silverman's report. “Any way you can get them and put them in, you should."

That is one of the four referendum questions the Jackson board will ask voters to approve on Tuesday.

Bond Proposal No. 1 (Solar Energy Project) asks voters the following referendum question:

"The Board of Education of the Township of Jackson in the County of Ocean, New Jersey is authorized: (a) to undertake the acquisition and installation of solar panels, including any necessary roof repairs, electrical system upgrades and related work at Jackson Memorial High School; (b) to appropriated $7,043,750; and (c) to issue bonds of the Scho9ol District in the amount of $7,04r3,750. The Board of Education is authorized to transfer its unexpended bond proceeds between the approved Bond Proposals.

"The final eligible costs approved by the New Jersey Commissioner of Education are $7,043,750. The State's debt service aid percentage will equal 40% of the annual debt service due on the final eligible costs of the project."

In 2005, the Jackson board funded repair of the Memorial High School roof through that year's referendum - the same year it could have followed the example of the Toms River Regional School District and gone green at a reduced cost to Jackson taxpayers.

The Jackson board is also asking voters to approve installation of a heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) system at Jackson Memorial High School.

Bond Proposal No. 3 (HVAC at Memorial High School) asks voters the following referendum question:

"The Board of Education of the Township of Jackson in the County of Ocean, New Jersey is authorized: (a) to replace the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems and any related work at Jackson Memorial High School; (b) to appropriate $6,700,000; and (c) to issue bonds of the School District in the amount of $6,700,000. The Board of Education is authorized to transfer its unexpended bond proceeds between the approved Bond Proposals.

"The final eligible costs approved by the New Jersey Commissioner of Education are $6,700,000. The State debt service aid percentage will equal 40% of the annual debt service due on the final eligible costs of the project."

Instead of proposing to install solar panels and HVAC in a school building almost half-a-century old, the board can ask voters to approve funding to expand Liberty High School, which already has HVAC, and install solar panels on the newer high school's roof.

The Jackson board is proposing different improvements to Liberty High School.

Bond Proposal No. 4 (Irrigation System at Liberty H.S.) asks voters the following referendum question:

"The Board of Education of the Township of Jackson in the County of Ocean, New Jersey is authorized: (a) to install an irrigation system, including any related work at Jackson Liberty High School; (b) to appropriate $3,790,230; and (c) to issue bonds of the School District in the amount of $3,790,230. The Board of Education is authorized to transfer its unexpended bond proceeds between the approved Bond Proposals.

"The final eligible costs approved by the New Jersey Commissioner of Education are $3,790,230. The State debt service aid percentage will equal 40% of the annual debt service due on the final eligible costs of the project."

In a Power Point presentation posted on the district Web site, the board cited a change by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in the interpretation of an unidentified state law. Due to the change in interpretation, the board proposed to build a man-made pond at the school, similar to those used on golf courses, to provide a "green" and eco-friendly solution by recycling rainwater for a proposed irrigation system.

"We currently do not have full utilization of athletic areas (at Liberty High School)," the presentation noted.

In legal papers dated December 15, 2005, the board condemned a portion of property at Westgate, an Orthodox mixed-use development located adjacent to an athletic field at Liberty High School, in order to install a sanitary sewer easement. In exchange for the condemnation, board members agreed to pay the cost of privacy fencing at one section of the development, but not where the sewer easement was located.

The condemnation agreement provided hookup of water and sewer to Liberty High School, but at the expense of Jackson taxpayers, according to provisions of legal documents.

"The residents that reside on the defendants' properties shall have the same right as the general public to use the Board of Education's exterior athletic fields," stated the agreement.

By making access to the high school's athletic fields a condition of the legal agreement for water and sewer easement, the board made Jackson taxpayers liable for any injuries sustained by Westgate residents playing on district property.

If voters approve the referendum question on Tuesday, they may once again be assuming an unnecessary cost.

In 2008, Westgate residents stated at a meeting of the Lakewood Township Committee that they saw township personnel maintaining retention basins at Westgate.

Committeemen denied the charge, but last year agreed to pay for fencing around the remaining basin the developer refused to install, according to a December 8, 2009 letter from Yossel Slomowitz, Administrator of the Westgate Homeowners Association, obtained through the Open Public Records Act (OPRA).

"All of you have taken our safety issues very seriously," Slomowitz wrote committeemen. "Our residents met with you this past year to share our plight regarding the open retention basin. At this time, the township committee graciously committed to assisting us with the necessary funds ($16,000) to erect the safety fence."

Slomowitz reported that residents had been less successful in discussing the basins with Lakewood district officials.

"The issue has recently gotten more severe recently due to the fact that the Lakewood Board of Education will not allow for a bus stop near the basin due (to) the children's safety," he wrote.

According to sources, Lakewood committeemen promised to pay for fencing around the basins in August, after adoption of the 2009 municipal budget

In June 2009, Lakewood committeemen adopted a municipal budget after receiving state approval to defer over $10 million in July school taxes payable to the district. Although deferral of the July school tax payment created a $5.5 million surplus, committeemen delayed payment of the $16,000 fencing until after the state approved reauthorization of the township's Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) in September and a change in UEZ boundaries in November to included a portion of Westgate.

While Lakewood taxpayers have not publicly questioned or opposed the payment of tax dollars to maintain private property at Westgate, Jackson taxpayers may be less willing to fund improvement of Liberty High School athletic fields for non-resident use without further disclosure by the Jackson board.

In its online Power Point presentation, the Jackson board maintained it had separated referendum projects into four questions so that voters could evaluate each funding element separately.

"Each question stands alone," the presentation page asserted. "If approved, the implementation of the projects in one question are NOT contingent on the approval of another question."

That isn't true.

Bond Proposal No. 2 (All School Upgrades) asks voters the following referendum question:

"The Board of Education of the Township of Jackson in the County of Ocean, New Jersey is authorized: (a) to undertake various improvements, renovations, information technology upgrades and security system upgrades to Jackson Memorial High School, and security system upgrades to Jackson Liberty High School, Christa McAuliffe Middle School, Carl W/ Goetz Middle School, Crawford-Rodriguez Elementary School, Lucy N. Holman Elementary School, Switlik Elementary School; (b) to undertake the related site work and acquire the necessary equipment for such improvements; (c) to appropriate $11,925,000; and (d) to issue bonds of the School District in the amount of $11,925,000."

Bond Proposal No. 2 would serve as a funding mechanism for other approved referendum questions, despite the Jackson board's assertion that each stood alone:

"The Board of Education is authorized to transfer its unexpended bond proceeds between the school facilities projects within Bond Proposal No. 2 and between the approved Bond Proposals."

As a result, the Jackson board may have overestimated funding for Bond Proposal No. 2 or underestimated funding for the other three referendum questions.

"The total final eligible costs of the projects approved by the New Jersey Commissioner of Education are $11,325,000, consisting of $7,830,510 for Jackson Memorial High School, $747,125 for Jackson Liberty High School, $374,350 for the Christa McAuliffe Middle School, $512,200 for the Carl W. Goetz Middle School, $230,685 for the Crawford-Rodriquez Elementary School, $265,230 for the Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School, $359,155 for the Switlik Elementary School, $280,450 for the Howard C. Johnson Elementary School, and $389,975 for the Elms Elementary School. The State's debt service aid percentage will equal 40% of the annual debt service due on the projects' final eligible costs."

Bonding Proposal No. 2 would allocate the majority of funding, if approved, to Jackson Memorial High School for facility improvements.

As district enrollment continues to fall, Jackson may no longer need two high schools.

As more married students attend Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, described by sources as the world's largest rabbinical college, more families will own or rent homes in the surrounding townships. The majority of those families will send their school-age children to non-public schools, increasing the demand for district services, but not necessarily the enrollment in district public schools.

According to the Jackson Tax Assessor's map, posted on the township Web site, the township's densest population is at its border with Lakewood, not the part of town where Memorial High School is located.

That could soon change as well.

On January 25, one day before the Jackson district referendum, the Jackson Planning Board is scheduled to discuss a determination of net density at Jackson Mews, proposed by developer Mitch Leigh in 2006.

In 2007, the board denied Leigh's proposal to build 2,531 homes on a 610.5-acre, predominantly wetlands site in Jackson.

The site is located on West Commodore Boulevard (Route 526) and Jackson Mills-West Freehold Road (Route 638) in an area zoned for Planned Mixed Unit Residential Development (PMURD).

The site is also located on Germa Road, Whitty Road, a portion of West Fish Road and an existing easement on Athabaskan Way.

In 1989, Leigh received planning board approval of dense residential development on the same site, which he called Leigh at Jackson.

Leigh never built it.

Instead, Leigh renamed the project Towne Centre and in 2002 proposed to build it as a mixed-use development that would include an arts and entertainment component, as well as housing and commercial construction.

Leigh lobbied local government to rezone the site as a Town Center, but could not generate public support for a zoning change, township officials said.

According to Leigh's spokesperson, Tom Bovino, the state plan zoned the site Town Center in 1989.

In 2004, the Jackson Planning Board denied Leigh's application to develop a subdivision of Leigh at Jackson after they said Leigh's professionals failed to submit all required studies before the scheduled hearing.

Bovino said Leigh has continued to litigate the 2004 planning board denial in order to secure the right to develop the project according to Town Center zoning.

Township officials told a reporter in 2006 that local government never adopted the zoning.

The site is already zoned for dense development. However, Town Center zoning would enable Leigh to build the project at reduced expense if Jackson applied for and received Plan Endorsement.

Plan Endorsement ensures that municipal, county, regional and State Agency plans are consistent with the State Development and Redevelopment Plan and with each other. An endorsed plan entitles municipalities and counties to a higher priority for available funding, streamlined permit reviews, and coordinated state agency services.

Lakewood Township recently adopted a proposed Smart Growth Plan under the Plan Endorsement process. The Lakewood Smart Growth Plan includes Cedar Bridge Town Center, the location of a baseball stadium, residential housing and a corporate park with only infrastructure installed.

The plan also calls for construction of affordable housing, even though Lakewood fulfilled its Mount Laurel obligation decades ago.

Leigh has proposed to include affordable housing components that would help Jackson meet its Mount Laurel obligations, too. In return, he has pursued township approval to rezone the development site - both at town hall and in court.

Any member of the public or the media seeking to inspect Leigh's lawsuits will not be able to find all of them at computer terminals in state Superior Court Civil Records in Toms River, the seat of Ocean County government.

According to a 2009 e-mail response by Jackson Mayor Michael Reina, both parties were told by state Superior Court Judge Vincent J. Grasso to negotiate a settlement to Leigh's 2004 lawsuit. Reina said both parties were told not to publicly discuss the negotiations.

Reina later said negotiations failed and that Grasso had remanded the application back to the Jackson Planning Board for action.

Although the matter is scheduled for public discussion, Grasso effectively sealed the Leigh at Jackson court file during Lakewood's Smart Growth Plan hearings by not recording his instructions to Jackson officials and Leigh representatives. As a result, according to a member of Grasso's staff, the file was archived and unavailable in computer records to anyone from the public or the media looking for it without a file docket number.

If approved by Jackson officials, a Town Center zoning change could turn Jackson as well as neighboring Lakewood into a city subsidized by local, state and Federal taxpayers.

No other media outlet has reported the scheduled discussion at 7:30 p.m. Monday night or its relationship to Tuesday's referendum to fund improvements to Jackson public schools.

All state superior court judges must take an oath of office to uphold the United States and New Jersey Constitutions, which both protect freedom of the press.

A free press disseminates public information.

One year after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights, America's third president discussed freedom of the press with America's first president.

"No government ought to be without censors," Thomas Jefferson wrote President George Washington in a September 9, 1792 letter, "and where the press is free, no one ever will."