Hackensack school district unveils $165M facilities plan, includes new school

HACKENSACK — The city's school district has unveiled a $165.1 million proposal to upgrade its facilities and build a new school.

The proposal is the latest step in the district's years-long process to find a way to upgrade aging facilities and address a growing student population, school officials said Friday. Officials will submit the plan to the state Department of Education in July, and there will likely be a referendum in January for the proposal.

The Hackensack school district has been managing steady student population growth since 2010. At the same time, students are learning inside century-old buildings, including some that were built in 1909 or 1918, officials said.

Acting Superintendent Rosemary Marks said the proposal is a long-term solution that will bring the district facilities into the 21st century, and also help expand existing programs or add new ones, like universal preschool. 

"We cannot obviously provide for the growth [in our student population] in the few buildings that we have," Marks said on Friday.

Enrollment at the Hackensack school district has increased by more than 800 students in recent years. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 4,880 students enrolled in the district, according to state data. For this past 2017-18 academic year, officials estimated 5,714 students enrolled in the district.

School officials project enrollment will continue to increase in coming years. They estimated enrollment for the 2018-19 year will jump to 5,752 students. By the 2021-22 academic year, they anticipate as many as 5,834 students in the district.

The district rents space for its Early Childhood Development Center from the Archdiocese of Newark, Marks said. But even with that extra space, students are wait-listed because there is simply not enough room to accommodate them, she added. 

"Our goal is to really be able to provide for our students within our own school facilities and be more fiscally responsible than having to spend that much money on rent," Marks said. 

The most expansive item proposed by the district is building a new junior high school on the high school campus. The building, which would house students in the seventh, eighth and ninth grade, is estimated to cost about $91.4 million, officials said. But, the creation of a new school would allow the district to restructure and re-purpose existing facilities as part of the plan, Marks explained.

"This is a big part of our plan. It's not just building a new building. It's ensuring that our current, aging buildings with ancient infrastructure are provided for," Marks said. "Students across the district, not just the students who will be going into seventh, eighth and ninth grade, will benefit from upgraded school facilities. The district is really looking to provide 21st century learning facilities to ensure students are future-ready."

In February, the school district proposed building a new school on an existing soccer field. The new proposal also calls for a $2.5 million upgrade to the high school athletics field to remedy the loss of a field for the new school.

The proposal was presented by the Board of Education at its monthly meeting on Tuesday. The district also released a statement announcing the plans the following day on its website, where city residents can access related information, including two presentations about the proposal, and a list of frequently asked questions.

The board is also seeking applications from residents interested in joining an advisory team to help with the ongoing process. City residents can fill out a survey on the district's website to apply.

Board of Education President Lara Rodriguez said the district-wide plan will help transition the city's education system to fit current needs. Revamping the aging facilities and building a new school would enable the district to upgrade its STEAM and special education programs, officials said.

"One of the things I'm most excited about is not just the new building, but how the new building is going to trigger changes district-wide," Rodriguez said on Friday.

The new junior high school will enable to district to reconfigure and upgrade existing schools, officials said. They said the existing buildings would be restructured so the elementary schools for grades K-4 will become PreK-2 community schools, and the existing 5-8 middle school will be converted to an Upper Elementary building, serving grades 3-6. The new building will serve grades 7-9, and the high school would serve grades 10-12.

Officials said that the upgrades to the existing buildings will include retrofitting facilities to comply with state standards for preschool classrooms, adding security vestibules, handicap accessibility, drop off areas in all elementary schools, and heating/cooling upgrades, including central air conditioning.  

In an outline of the proposal, the district broke down the $165.1 million proposal into an itemized list. That list details how much each school in the district will be receiving for upgrades, or how much new structures are estimated to cost.

Those numbers are, approximately:

• $10.4 million for Fairmount School
• $9.4 million for Fanny Meyer Hillers School 
• $3.1 million for Jackson Avenue School
• $7.1 million for Nellie K. Parker School
• $16.5 million for Hackensack Middle School
• $17.3 million for Hackensack High School
• $6.3 million for a new parking garage
• $91.4 million for the new Junior High School
• $2.5 million for upgrades to the high school athletics fields

Officials said they do not yet know how much of an impact the proposal will have on city residents' tax bills, but they plan to provide that information to the public in the future. That number largely depends on how much state aid or grant money the district can secure to help with renovation costs, officials said.

Marks, the acting superintendent, said the district may be able to secure state aid for up to 40 percent of costs associated with renovations or upgrades of existing buildings. Certain items, like the proposal for curb cuts to ease pick-up and drop-off flows at local schools, may not be eligible for aid, she explained. 

The tax impact would be decided before the possible January referendum, said Rodriguez, the board's president. Once passed, it could take up to eight months for the district to begin upgrades or break ground on the new school and parking garage.

"We have every reason to believe that if the referendum passes we could have the schools open by September 2021," said Rodriguez.