Letter To Editor: Resident Criticizes NBBOE Over Preschool Issue

The Superintendent claims that North Bergen needs to be able to accommodate 960 preschoolers (480 3 year-olds and 480 4 year-olds) and only 360 can be accommodated in North Bergen elementary schools and 60 in Head Start classrooms. That’s a shortage of classroom space for 540 preschoolers.

Then why is the North Bergen BOE planning to discontinue leasing the Robert Fulton Elementary School Annex (aka Polk Street School), when additional elementary classroom space is needed?

Further, the Superintendent claims that this shortage of classroom space is the reason why North Bergen must build a preschool on 1.34 acres of Hudson County’s Braddock Park, a premier recreational park. Why not instead on the nearly 5 acres of recreational land owned by the North Bergen Board of Education which hasn’t any classrooms on it?

The Superintendent states that Braddock Park is needed to serve the preschoolers who will not fit into elementary school and Head Start Classrooms.
36 classrooms (at 15 preschoolers per classroom), would be needed for 540 preschoolers, along with other classroom, administrative, storage and other spaces.

The 1.34 acres which North Bergen is seeking for its preschool in Braddock Park is not enough to meet State educational regulations:

1- A 36 classroom school would probably require a minimum of 50 parking spots.
North Bergen’s 1.34 acres doesn’t seem to provide for any parking spaces, even though current staff and visitors park there.

2- The preschool would need a larger play area than is currently on its 1.34 acres.

3- The preschool would not have the required NJ DOE buffer and access areas.

4- The current preschool roadway does not meet State guidelines; it would need to be widened and have sidewalk(s) installed.

It is very likely that the soil at the preschool site is contaminated. Soil in Braddock Park has been found to be contaminated previously. Perhaps the site is not suitable for a preschool, or maybe it will take years to remediate. The same Superintendent stated “Property purchased next to Lincoln School for the program had soil contamination and thus could not be used” in a 11-27-20 letter to The Jersey Journal.

The same Superintendent also negligently provided false information when he stated in a 2017 Jersey Journal article that the current 24 year-old Preschool trailers were exempt from regulations requiring emergency exits in each trailer. They were not exempt and the exits had to be added.

NJ DEP asked North Bergen for its preschool plans and for proof that the proposed preschool would meet State educational regulations and North Bergen didn’t provide either.
NJ DEP should not allow North Bergen’s diversion application to proceed – it should be stopped now in light of all the preceding dangers.

The North Bergen BOE continues to provide incomplete, deceptive and false information to the State while it jeopardizes the lives of preschoolers and staff.

Robert Walden
North Bergen