Board says new schools will be ready Sept. 4

By kathy baratta

Staff Writer

HOWELL — The Board of Education says it will be ready to open the K-8 school district’s two new elementary schools on Sept. 4 without adding Sunday work days.

The announcement came after the Township Council refused to grant the board’s request to have construction crews work on four Sundays in August.

Board President Patti Blood told the Tri-Town News the board had requested the Sunday work days so the district would have "days in the bank in case something came up."

Following the council’s 4-1 vote to reject the request, Blood said Epic Man-agement, the construction project manager, offered assurances that the extra work days would not be needed.

The schools in question are the new Adelphia Elementary School, Route 524, and the new Greenville Elementary School, Ramtown-Greenville Road.

A new middle school being built next to the Adelphia Elementary School will not be ready for the start of the 2002-03 school year due to bad weather and pesticide remediation on the land on which it is being built.

Students who will be attending the new Adelphia Elementary School previously attended the Ardena and Griebling schools, Blood said. Students going to the new Greenville Elementary School previously attended the Ramtown Elementary School.

Mayor Timothy J. Konopka said he feared that voting against the extra work days would make the governing body a scapegoat in the event the schools didn’t open on time.

"I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, because it’s going to come back to haunt us," Konopka said.

Councilman Joseph M. DiBella conceded the mayor’s point, but said he was voting against the request because he did not want to set a precedent.

"It sets a potentially dangerous precedent," DiBella said. "Sunday is a day we don’t want bangs and booms and driving nails obstructing people’s way of life."