The Trenton Times published the following article on June 13, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton Central High School students say they are unconvinced repairs will be made to dilapidated building

By Jenna Pizzi/The Times of Trenton 
on June 13, 2013 at 7:43 PM, updated June 13, 2013 at 7:49 PM

TRENTON — After a meeting with school district officials today, one of the Trenton Central High School students who staged a walkout this week over long-delayed repairs for the dilapidated buiding said that the group remains unconvinced that badly needed improvements will be made.

Jada Bailey, 16, said a number of students met with Assistant Superintendent Shelley Jallow to discuss the needed repairs and to hear what the school district is doing to address them.

“We were partially satisfied. We’re not all the way satisfied,” Bailey said.

Students were promised the meeting when about 100 of them staged the walkout on Tuesday morning to protest conditions in the aging building, including frequent roof leaks and discolored water from faucets and sinks.

Jallow said she thought the meeting provided students with information about the process of securing state funds to fix the building.

“We wanted to share with students safe and effective ways to voice their concerns about the conditions at TCHS to the appropriate parties,” Jallow said in an e-mail.

For many years students have been complaining of peeling paint, discolored water and mold in the building. Over the past decade several proposals have been made to renovate the school or build a new one but none has moved beyond the planning stage.

The state Schools Development Authority announced a plan earlier this year to put $13.3 million into urgent repairs on the building, but the repairs have yet to be made. An SDA spokeswoman said this week that the board will award a bid to a design consultant for the project sometime this summer.

Bailey said she and her classmates are planning to organize students to write letters to the SDA board, demanding that they speed up the repairs, with the hope that their voices will be heard.

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.