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03/16/04 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom
Agilent site could be location of new school

Christ Church not surprised by decision

By Rob Jennings, Daily Record

ROCKAWAY TWP. - The 107-acre Agilent Technologies property, currently under a $14 million purchase agreement with Christ Church of Montclair, is one of three properties that a school board committee will recommend as possible locations for building a new school, officials said Monday.

"We are clearly disappointed but not surprised about the decision," a Christ Church spokesman, Marc Weinstein, said Monday night when informed the Agilent site was among the three properties still under consideration.

The K-8 district's facilities study committee, formed in November to discuss escalating student enrollment, will propose a new 85,000-square-foot school and additions to the Dennis B. O'Brien and Birchwood elementary schools, school board business administrator Daniel Saragnese said Monday night.

The full school board will review the committee's recommendations at its March 24 meeting and is expected to make a decision in eight to ten weeks, said Saragnese, who is co-chairing the committee along with O'Brien School Principal Craig Wilson.

If the board decides to build a new school, a referendum probably would be held in December, Saragnese said. Possible grade alignments for a new school would include K-4, 5-6 or 7-8, he added.

Construction of some kind appears likely. Approximately 2,900 children attend six public schools in the district. By 2007, that number is expected to rise to 3,500, Saragnese said.

In addition to the Agilent site - which presumably would require an eminent domain action to acquire - the board will also assess the feasibility of building a new school on 16 acres it already owns on Fleetwood Drive and a 34-acre, privately-owned tract on Mount Hope Avenue, project architect Larry Levanto said at Monday's 6 p.m. meeting of the facilities study committee.

The 5,000-member Christ Church's building plan on Green Pond Road, including a 3,000-seat sanctuary and private K-5 school, has generated enormous local opposition but school officials repeatedly have said the issue would not factor into the committee's deliberations.

Approximately 30 township residents served with several school officials on the committee, which was divided into subcommittees on site plans and site selection.

The committee whittled the list of potential school sites from 30 to three, said lead architect Kevin Settenbrino.

Weinstein declined comment, when asked if an eminent domain action would prompt a lawsuit from Christ Church. The Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund, an advocacy group that defends churches in court, has said it will represent Christ Church if its application is rejected by the township.

A fourth public hearing on Christ Church's application was held last week by the planning board.

At Monday's meeting, James Turtletaub, an eminent domain attorney retained by the district, said the district might not need to acquire the entire Agilent site.

"When you condemn land, you can do a partial acquisition," said Turtletaub, part of a nine-person delegation from the district that toured the Agilent property in December.

The school board acquired the Fleetwood tract in a land trade with the township in the early 1970s, school board President Michael Friedberger said last month.

In exchange, the township received a parcel near the Katharine D. Malone School, where it built a maintenance garage, Friedberger said.

The district knows a lot less about the Mount Hope site, whose owner was not disclosed Monday night.

"The board does not own the site. There's no wetlands information. Since we don't own the site, there's only so much we can do," Settenbrino said.

While committee meetings were open to the media, Saragnese asked members not to discuss their deliberations in the press.

The committee will be given ample time to present its findings next week, said school board member Frank Giarratano.

"If we have to stay until midnight to get our other business done, we will do it. This is very important to the district," Giarratano said.