NJSBA: School Construction Delay Breaks Promise

NJSBA: School Construction
Delay Breaks Promise—Web Extra

The executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association today said that a proposal to further delay construction projects in poor communities would break a promise to schoolchildren.

The plan would delay part of a list of 59 high-priority school construction projects. The proposal will come before the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation (SCC) later this month. The SCC is the agency that oversees school construction in the state’s poorest communities.

“Continuing to delay construction breaks a promise made to schoolchildren by the courts and the Legislature,” said Edwina M. Lee, NJSBA executive director. “It comes at a bad time: the need for safe schools and classroom space is growing, and delays will only add to inflation of construction costs.”

Under the state Supreme Court’s Abbott v. Burke decision, the state must fully fund school construction and renovation in 31 poor school districts. The proposed delay, reported on Monday, could bring the backlog of projects in those communities to more than 350.

Only 81 projects have been completed in the poor communities since the creation of a $6 billion state fund in 2000 to finance construction in the “Abbott” districts. The fund’s depletion – largely attributed to management decisions at the SCC – is the reason behind the proposal to delay the projects, according to news reports. The SCC’s procedures have undergone extensive review over the past two years, and new accountability measures have been implemented.

“The exhaustion of the school construction fund resulted from actions at the state level,” said Lee. “Yet, it is the children in our local school districts who are paying the price by being denied safe and adequate classrooms.

“The New Jersey School Boards Association continues to urge Governor Corzine and the state Legislature to make school construction funding a priority.”