The Trenton Times published the following article on June 27, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora frustrated by lackadaisical timeline for Trenton Central High renovations

By Jenna Pizzi/The Times of Trenton 
on June 27, 2013 at 9:19 PM, updated June 28, 2013 at 11:33 AM

As he reached overhead to feel the waterlogged wall in the Trenton Central High School library this morning, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora was showered in pieces of plaster as the very spot he had touched came crumbling down.

The visibly frustrated Gusciora (D-Trenton) said this latest damage to the dilapidated building only exacerbated his anger that the state Schools Development Authority, which funds renovation projects for urban schools, has not moved more quickly on repairs at the high school.

“We asked the SDA to come up with a timeline,” Gusciora said, remembering a promise he said was made during a January meeting between local legislators and the authority.

Gusciora said the SDA never followed through with a timeline and instead has squandered the opportunity to perform meaningful renovations to the 81-year-old school over the summer and instead opted to do more planning.

An SDA spokeswoman said earlier this month that the board will award a bid to a design consultant to work on a plan for the school sometime this summer.

Gusciora also toured the auditorium, where seats are broken and the floor boards are coming up, and the cafeteria, where there is no air conditioning or ventilation and the paint on the ceiling is chipping.

Gusciora noted that the project has gone out to bid several times before, and no changes have been made.

If this was West Windsor, parents would be pulling their kids out of school

“This is not a conducive learning environment,” he said. “If this was West Windsor, parents would be pulling their kids out of school.”

“All we get from the state is just indifference and benign neglect,” Gusciora said.

Nancy Lee, the school librarian, said she has been at the school for six years and has heard a number of times that the fixes would be made.

“One year they started to clear students from part of the school, but nothing happened,” she said.

Superintendent Francisco Duran said a number of improvement projects, which will be paid for through the school district’s budget, not the SDA, will be completed at the school this summer.

More than $2.7 million will be spent — $1.1 million for repairs to the roof — on various projects.

“I think the roofs have been repaired many, many times,” said Vice Principal Carlos Gonzalez.

Gusciora said he was alerted to the lack of repairs by 16-year-old Jada Bailey, a student at the school.

He said he is going to have Bailey and other concerned students join him in urging Gov. Chris Christie to help expedite the repairs.

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