School building program gets infusion of nearly $4B

After three years in limbo brought on by scandals and mismanagement, New Jersey's ambitious program to rebuild schools in the state's poorest communities was infused Tuesday with almost $4 billion -- including $158 million for a new Phillipsburg high school.

At their monthly meeting in Trenton Tuesday, managers of the state Schools Development Authority approved 53 projects expected to cost about $2.6 billion.

The projects range from a $2.9 million pedestrian footbridge to carry students to a new Paterson elementary school to a new high school in Millville slated to cost $163 million.

"We're able to do work today because the money is available in the future," said Scott Weiner, chief executive officer of the school building authority. "Shovels will be in the ground shortly."

And that means the days are numbered for New Jersey's largest trailer-park high school.

In the cramped Phillipsburg School District, where students attend many of their classes in a state-record 31 modular classrooms, a $158 million high school is on the list of approved projects.

Acting superintendent George Chando called the news from Trenton "monumental."

"This is the best news that the school district and the town has received in a long time," he said.

A roomier Phillipsburg High School was to be built at Roseberry Street and Belvidere Road in Lopatcong Township in time for the 2008-09 school year -- but state funding dried up, leaving only a paved road to nowhere. The cost of the 325,000-square-foot school was $95 million, but the price has since increased by $63 million.

The school, to be built less than a mile from the present high school on Hillcrest Boulevard in Phillipsburg in 26 months, will have room for nearly 2,400 students. Now, 1,700 students are in a building designed for 1,200.

The schools approved for construction Tuesday are the first projects to get the go-ahead since 2005, when the $8.6 billion program stalled amid scandal over widespread waste and mismanagement.

Lawmakers authorized another $3.9 billion for the program last month. Gov. Jon Corzine is scheduled to sign the funding authorization today in Newark.

Barry Zubrow, authority chairman, said the new funding is recognition reforms have been made.

"I think it's important we not allow the sins of the past to taint in any way the good works that this authority is going to do in the future," he said.

State lawmakers set up the program in 2000 in response to the state Supreme Court order in the Abbott vs. Burke lawsuit that requires New Jersey to rebuild or replace hundreds of decrepit public schools in 31 of the state's neediest communities.

Since its founding, with $6 billion to spend in the communities covered by the court order, the program has completed 42 buildings, 39 major additions or renovations and 576 repair projects.

But even with the full $6 billion expended, about 351 projects remain, local school officials told the state last year. The new funding will cover 26 of those projects.

The funding includes another $950 million for suburban communities, which will have to compete for it, state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said.

There also is a $304 million reserve for emergency and unanticipated expenses and $50 million for county vocational-technical schools.

According to the plan adopted Tuesday, work would begin on 18 projects next year, 18 more in 2010 and 10 more through May 2011. Weiner and Davy said the most urgently needed projects were chosen.

Susan Flanagan, who has two sons at Phillipsburg High School, remained cautiously optimistic.

"We're happy, of course," Flanagan said. "I hear it. I see it. But there's no truck up there yet."