PARTIAL ROOF REPAIR FOR GLOUCESTER HIGH SCHOOL COST $6,528,000 MILLION
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
William E. Cleary | CNBNews Editor
Gloucester City, NJ (December 1, 2024)(CNBNews)--A $6.5 million partial roofing repair at Gloucester High School, located at 1300 Market Street, has been in progress for nearly two weeks. Neatly stacked on the PSE&G property next to the school is row after row of material needed to repair a partial roof section.
The project is under the auspices of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority (NJSDA or SDA). That authority is the State agency responsible for fully funding and managing the new construction, modernization, and renovation of school facilities projects in 31 New Jersey school districts known as the ‘SDA Districts.’[1] It is an independent authority in but not of the New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Previously, it was known as an ABBOTT DISTRICT.
The Gloucester City School District is one of 31 school properties in the state labeled a "Special Needs District." A school district in New Jersey qualifies as an "Abbott district" if it is identified as one of the poorest urban districts with a high percentage of disadvantaged students and low socioeconomic status, and demonstrates a significant failure to provide a "thorough and efficient education," as determined by factors like low standardized test scores, placing them in the lowest categories on the New Jersey Department of Education's District Factor Groups (DFG) scale; essentially meaning they require significantly more state funding to provide adequate education compared to other districts.
Gloucester City fulfills all of those qualifications.
Other responsibilities of the Authority include renovations and repairs deemed to be ‘Emergent projects’ by the New Jersey Department of Education due to potential health and safety reasons and grant funding in Regular Operating Districts (ROD) that address health and safety issues and other critical needs. The SDA administers grants, with a minimum state share of 40 percent of eligible project costs to RODs, which manage their own projects.
At its July 3, 2024, meeting, the SDA approved the $6,528,000 million expenditure needed to repair a partial section of Gloucester High School's roof. The taxpayers of New Jersey are funding the cost. Those same taxpayers also paid for the $87 million construction of the Gloucester City Middle School, the $8.1 million Cold Springs Pre-School, and the Cold Springs Elementary School (cost unknown), along with the estimated $2 million it cost to install an astroturf material on the football fields at the high school and the middle school along with the stadium lights at both schools. In 2004, the SDA spent $8.6 billion on construction projects on those 31 school districts.
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