The Trenton Times published the following article on March 7, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Condition of Trenton Central High School shocks other school districts

By Erin Duffy/The Times of Trenton 
on March 07, 2013 at 7:15 AM

TRENTON — Parents, staff and students from school districts across the state — Trenton, Camden, Irvington, Gloucester City — shared horror stories of broken windows, collapsing roofs and choking mold in dilapidated schools at a meeting yesterday of the state Schools Development Authority.

A teacher from Lincoln High School in Jersey City talked about a “new” wing built in one school in 1911. A union head from Gloucester City railed on about a new middle school that’s been in the works for 10 years, with only a vacant plot of land to show.

But both agreed that their problems paled in comparison to decaying conditions described at Trenton Central High School.

School board members, students and teachers spoke about walls that cascaded water during storms, ceilings that showered tiles on students’ heads, warped floors and plumbing problems that union grievance chairwoman and computer teacher Janice Williams said used to send urine dripping into her basement computer lab.

Paterson school board member Jonathan Hodges said after hearing that, he was fully prepared to lobby for Trenton, even at the expense of his own district.

“I’m here to advocate for Trenton schools before I advocate for mine,” he said. “I can’t think of a school in my district as bad as that. I’m sitting here in a state of shock.”

Several school districts and statewide education organizations confronted the SDA yesterday over what they called a shamefully slow track record for finishing state-funded school construction projects.

Trenton activists made a big showing, calling on the SDA to expedite repairs for an 80-year-old school “in a severe state of disrepair,” as described by former city Police Director James Golden.

“The money has been earmarked for school construction for more than 13 years,” Trenton Education Association President Naomi Johnson-Lafleur said. “And a shovel has yet to hit the ground to fix Trenton Central High School. I implore each of you on this committee to act now.”

But in an interview after the meeting, SDA CEO Marc Larkins said the district is inching closer to seeing a fully remodeled and repaired TCHS.

Larkins said the school construction agency should finalize the scope of the work needed at the 80-year-old high school by the end of this month. Plans for renovations will then move into the design phase, which will in turn hasten the start of construction at TCHS.

“What we’re doing is planning repairs on a building that’s occupied and we have to phase it,” Larkins said. “Our approach right now is to do the exterior and make the building watertight and then do interior work. Once we got (Trenton’s educational) program approved in January we’ve had six or seven working group sessions in the last six or seven weeks and our goal is to have the scope finalized this month.”

School board President Toby Sanders and Trenton Superintendent Francisco Duran halfheartedly agreed with Larkins’ assessment yesterday, saying a working group comprised of school officials and community members had been meeting with the SDA regularly over the last two months to hammer out the details of a major overhaul that would fix structural problems at TCHS and move the high school into the 21st century.

“We should see action on the school sometime this summer,” Sander said. “We’re hoping for that. But the issues are complicated.”

“A working group has been formed,” Duran said. “But my concern is, ‘now what?’”

Sanders said in a best-case scenario, construction could start this summer for the first phase of a three-phase construction project to renovate TCHS. The first phase would involve fixing the school’s perpetually patched and leaking roof and other exterior structures to prevent water damage. The second phase would involve interior repairs to walls, plumbing systems and other structures and the final phase would involve updating and renovating classrooms to bring them in line with the district’s new plan to expand vocational offerings, create five small learning communities and update classrooms and computer and science labs.

Any construction would likely be staggered to allow contractors to work around school schedules, Larkins said. SDA is looking to hire one general contractor who would oversee the bundle of repairs and renovations needed at the school.

But Sanders said the school board, the city and especially the community want to see action, and soon.

“If there is any delay deemed unreasonable by the school board, we will go to court to expedite this matter,” he said.

Duran said he was encouraged by the work accomplished thus far, but said no cost estimates or construction timelines have been finalized. The district has been trying to make patchwork repairs at the high school, but it needs an overhaul, not just quick fixes.

The SDA gave the same answer about finalizing the building plans in January, he said.

It’s now March.

“Mr. Larkins and the SDA has been very responsive to meeting with us,” Duran said. “I’m very pleased when we do meet, but that’s not the point. We don’t need to keep meeting, we need to start working.”

Larkins said the scope of the work at TCHS has changed at least twice in the past year but said SDA was committed to moving forward with repairs to it and other schools on its emergent repairs list.

“A lot of people and reporters and others will say the SDA is not moving fast enough,” Larkins said. “But not a lot of people have offered concrete ways to improve the process. That’s what we’d love to hear. We’re open-minded here, we’re moving much faster than we ever have historically, but it seems that’s still not satisfactory and I understand, because students are in conditions of definite disrepair.”

Contact Erin Duffy at (609) 989-5723 or eduffy@njtimes.com