Howell officials indicate support for high school Panel recommended pursuit of land for new building

Howell officials indicate
support for high school
Panel recommended pursuit of land
for new building

Howell Mayor Timothy J. Konopka and several members of the Township Council say they support the construction of a new high school in the community.

An ad hoc facilities advisory committee recently recommended that course of action in a report to the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Educa-tion. In planning for the construction of the district’s seventh high school, the members of the ad hoc panel said "priority consideration should be given to Howell in the search for a site."

At present the district operates high schools in Colts Neck, Free-hold Borough, Freehold Town-ship, Howell, Manalapan and Marlboro. The district’s eight sending communities are those six towns plus Englishtown and Farmingdale.

"We have the population to support the (new) school," Konopka said, noting that 1,650 Howell students currently attend Howell High School while 900 Howell students are sent to Freehold Township High School and 500 are sent to Colts Neck High School.

Councilwoman Kimberly Alvarez said, "While we definitely need another high school in Howell," she believes district administrators need to be more specific with the information regarding their needs.

Current enrollment statistics show that nearly 30 percent of the district’s 9,700 students come from Howell. Future enrollment projections indicate that number is likely to increase.

Ronald Lawson, one of Howell’s two representatives on the high school board, chaired the 22-member committee that came up with the recommendation of building a new school in Howell.

A previous facilities committee identified three possible locations for a seventh high school: a 100-acre parcel on Route 33 near Iron Ore Road in Manalapan; the Hascup farm on Route 524 in Howell; and a 127-acre site at West Farms and Yellowbrook roads in Howell.

The Hascup property, however, is the subject of litigation between U.S. Home and Howell and may not be a viable candidate.

Konopka said he favored the Hascup site because the size of the parcel could sustain the construction of a high school, a grammar school and a middle school with an added recreation component.

He said the redistricting of students that has been thrust on Howell while member towns such as Manalapan and Marlboro have their students attending only their hometown high schools has been unfair and gone on long enough.

The mayor acknowledged that the education received by his constituents is "excellent" and not in question, but said the policy of all towns not being required to send children away from their "hometown" school is unfair.

"These towns want their kids to stay within the boundaries of their hometown while Howell kids and their parents continue to sacrifice," Konopka said.

Now, said the mayor, "the numbers (student population) are getting out of control and it’s a quality of education issue."

In addition to the properties already identified by the school district as possible sites for a new high school, Konopka suggested that a parcel in the vicinity of Fort Plains Road, among other tracts in the community, should be considered. He said the district as a whole is reacting to a problem that can be rectified by "proper township planning and tougher zoning laws."

"As much as parents throughout the district are coming out against redistricting throughout the FRHSD, they should come out just as strongly in support of their township officials’ efforts to control residential growth and not bash the district school board members and administrators who are doing the best they can with the problem before them," he said. "As long as the growth of the western part of the county continues and the population escalates, school crowding will continue to be a problem."

Councilman Fritz Kirchhof said he is also in "full support of another school in Howell. The best thing is if all students go to high school in Howell."

He, too, favors a location for the new school on Fort Plains Road. Also, like the mayor, he stressed the need for citizens to get behind municipal efforts to stem residential development.

"Citizens have to support the township’s pursuit of ratables in an effort to keep the tax burden low," Kirchhof said.

(Students from Howell attend the six schools in the Freehold Regional High School District).