The Jersey City Independent "

The Education Law Center and a Jersey City school board member are demanding Gov. Chris Christie’s administration account for what they describe as foot-dragging in approving requests for necessary repairs to school buildings.

Last June, the Jersey City Public School District submitted a list of 39 repair projects in response to a query from the Schools Development Authority (SDA), which runs the state’s Potential Emergent Projects Program (PEPP). The PEPP repair program was developed last year for 31 low-income urban districts formerly classified as Abbott districts such as Jersey City, whose designation under the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Abbott vs. Burke decision places them in a special category for state help.

But while requests for repairs were made in June, seven months later, the district still does not have an answer on which projects will receive funding and be able to move forward.

Jersey City’s requests were among approximately 700 from districts around the state, yet only about 300 of these requests have been preliminarily identified as possibly meeting PEPP requirements. Repairs are only dealt with under PEPP if conditions are determined to impact public health and safety.

A check of the district’s list shows it is seeking repairs including partial and full roof replacements, new boilers, elevators and stairs, as well as masonry and sidewalk work, for 20 of the district’s schools. For the complete projects list, click here.

SDA, an independent agency associated with the state Department of Treasury, runs the program working with the state Department of Education (DOE) but obtains its funding on an “as needed basis” from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA). EDA has allocated $100 million to the school unit for its current initiative, but SDA spokeswoman Andrea Pasquine cautions even more funds will be needed to work on all the PEPP projects ultimately approved.

Education Law Center (ELC) executive director David Sciarra and city board member Suzanne Mack, who chairs the board’s facilities committee, are urging the state legislature to investigate what they consider to be an unacceptable delay in taking final action on the districts’ requests. Their pleas drew sympathy from State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-31) when told of their concerns by JCI.

But Pasquine and DOE spokeswoman Allison Kobus insist their agencies are complying with the law and will notify the districts on all final decisions soon. “We expect to send letters out to the districts identifying projects in the next several weeks,” Pasquine says.

That timeframe is unacceptable to Sciarra, whose agency advocates on behalf of poorer urban districts like Jersey City.

“The fact that the SDA has taken this long, and not even notified the districts what projects are under final consideration, is disgraceful,” Sciarra says. “The law clearly requires an expedited response on the part of the state to these requests, and that hasn’t happened.”

“The agency has over 300 employees so it’s not like they lack the manpower to address the requests in an expedited manner,” he adds.

Under PEPP, the SDA provides funding for projects deemed “emergent” based upon a a review of individual conditions. “Emergent” conditions are those deemed to adversely impact the health and safety of people occupying buildings during school hours. The state, however, distinguishes between “emergent conditions” and “emergency situations” — and SDA contends the districts are only responsible for working immediately on “emergencies.”

ELC has sent letters to State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-29) and Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-18), the heads of the senate and assembly education committees, respectively, urging them “to investigate the Christie administration’s refusal to address” the alleged problems “in urban school buildings across the state.”

“These and other concerns require immediate, thorough and complete investigation, especially given the imminent threat to the health and safety of thousands of children, teachers and staff using the SDA school buildings where these emergency conditions exist every school day,” one letter states.

Locally, Mack tells JCI her committee conferred with a special attorney the district has retained in the matter during a closed session last Thursday. Districts have the right to challenge SDA rejections in court.

“Jersey City is also concerned and supports Education Law Center’s actions regarding getting the SDA to classify the status of the emergent projects list,” Mack says.

She adds the district “applauds the efforts of ELC to assist public school districts in this matter,” but after waiting patiently for the SDA to take final action, it is growing impatient.

Yet Kobus and Pasquine counter the SDA is doing the best it can under difficult circumstances given the volume of requests, which have entailed site visits to 190 facilities.

And in an email to JCI, Kobus made clear the state disagrees with ELC’s contention that, under the Abbott and school facilities laws, the words “emergent” and “emergency” mean the same thing.

“The state of New Jersey is required to fully fund emergent projects,” Kobus writes. “These are categorized as projects where health and safety requirements dictate that rehabilitation work is necessary on an expedited basis. However, individual districts are responsible to stabilize an emergency situation and are required to assure the routine maintenance of their school facilities, because emergency situations can develop once routine maintenance is neglected.”

“The results of the site visits are currently under review to identify which conditions warrant advancement as emergent projects,” Kobus explains.

Sciarra, however, responds that SDA should have finalized all approved projects by now.

“Her comments amount to a lot of legal jargon,” Sciarra says after reading Kobus’ email. “Simply put, the law requires an expedited response to these concerns. Not even identifying a single project after seven months is not an expedited response.”

“The projects should have been decided long ago,” ELC’s executive director reiterates. “We’re talking about conditions that could adversely affect health and safety of students and staff in emergency situations. And since, under the law, the districts can undertake litigation challenging any rejection from the authority, they should have already received this information so they can assess their options.”

While acknowledging not all projects necessarily qualify under the law, Sciarra says he’s skeptical that roughly 400 merit rejection.

“The problem is the state has offered the districts no information at all as to what factored into these decisions,” he complains. “The fact that they have not offered a list, or any information, at this stage, given all that is at risk, is unconscionable.”

Pasquine asserts the authority, even with its manpower, has been overwhelmed by the total number of requests.

“It’s not an issue of taking longer,” she says. “There were a lot more issues to consider with this group of projects. As opposed to the process involved with individual submissions, there were bulk submissions, and we had to reject about 400 of them.”

On the PEPP controversy, Cunningham tells JCI she has not yet received any communication from the district indicating its concerns, but would be willing to make inquiries in Trenton if contacted.

“If the Education Law Center has heard from so many districts all over the state having problems with this program,” Cunningham says, “I certainly would support their call for the legislature to investigate.”

Cunningham opted to focus attention on the SDA’s new construction initiatives, saying she’s satisfied with progress in that area – even as the ELC maintains the Christie administration “is in the third year of a shutdown of the program.”

“The administration has been working with us to get new schools built,” says the senator, one of two Democratic members of the transition team of then-Governor-elect Christie, a Republican, in 2009. “In Jersey City, we expect to break ground on a new PS 20 in September.”

Kobus says Christie has better organized the SDA and its operations upon inheriting the agency from his Democratic predecessor, Jon Corzine, and is still in the process of making changes. She claims the authority “has completely re-evaluated its operations,” while performing work on “over 100 emergent projects” prior to establishing PEPP.

JCI Photo of Dickinson High School, which is listed as needing a partial roof replacement.

Like what you've read here? Please consider making a donation or becoming a sustaining member. As a grassroots news organization, we rely on community support -- as well as paid advertising -- to survive.