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Parents Skeptical of Elementary School Realignment

Posted on: Tuesday, 31 January 2006, 15:10 CST

By MERRY FIRSCHEIN, STAFF WRITER

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS A proposal to realign the borough's two elementary schools may be inconvenient for parents, but could produce a more consistent curriculum.

Under the proposal, all children in kindergarten through second grade would go to Lincoln School. Children in third through fifth grades would go to Euclid School.

The plan was presented to Board of Education members and about 100 residents Thursday. The plan is still in its formative stages.

Parents will have a chance to make their voices heard in a straw poll, scheduled for a joint Euclid and Lincoln school parent- teacher association meeting Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

The school board is scheduled to vote on the proposal Feb. 16. If they approve the plan, a question would be placed on the April 18 ballot for a townwide vote. If it is approved, the changes would be made by the start of the new school year.

A realignment of the two elementary schools would bring many inconveniences, said Connie Doheny, a parent who argued against the proposal.

For example, siblings could attend different schools, she said. Also, parents would have to join two PTAs, and there would be no older children in Lincoln School to be book buddies or role models for the younger children. And some children who walk to school now would not be able to do so, Doheny said.

However, the proposal has many benefits, said Lincoln School PTA President Nancy Smith, who gave the other side of the issue.

All teachers of the same grade could teach information in the same way, she said.

Other benefits include having clubs and after-school activities for all the children in a grade. Also, there would be a better distribution of students in classrooms.

Realignment would cost taxpayers $280,000, said school Business Administrator Joseph Bellino. Most of that cost about $170,000 would come from moving the two schools' main offices from upper floors to the main floor.

Schools Superintendent Joseph Luongo said that for security reasons he would recommend the offices be moved whether or not the realignment passes.

The presentation will be placed on the school district's Web site, Luongo said.

Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.

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