Funding sources of new STEM Innovation Academy clarified

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — After the new Science Technology Engineering and Math Innovation Academy of the Oranges unofficially opened in the old Marylawn School on Scotland Road in South Orange on Monday, Feb. 26, followed by an official grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, March 6, Adekunle James, the school district business administrator and board secretary, decided it was time to set the record straight about how the district could afford such an expense.

“The building is leased by the board through the Orange Education Foundation,” said James on Monday, March 12. “The Orange Education Foundation owns the building and the board is leasing that building through an allotment of funds that was already approved by the Board of School Estimate and approved by the city, as part of our tax levy, some two years ago. It’s separate from the bonds. It’s not included in the bonds. We applied for a $3.7 million bond, but the S.T.E.M. Academy is not included in that project.”

Now the Orange School District has an institution specifically devoted to academic studies in the sciences, math and technology, along with the actual labs, computers, classrooms, facilities and equipment Orange Board of Education officials said district students need to excel on standardized tests such as the PARCC — Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers — Assessment to put them on the fast track for New Millennium jobs in the Information Technology sector and other related fields.

The money to lease the old Marylawn School and transform it into the district’s new S.T.E.M. Innovation Academy was granted by a decision from the now defunct Orange Board of School Estimate. Thanks to the decision of voters to change Orange from a Type 1 district where the mayor appoints Board of Education members, to a Type 2 district, where voters elect board members, the Orange Board of School Estimate no longer exists, so now voters will have to decide if projects such as this should be funded.

“Initially, some years ago, when we started this bond request, we had that project of S.T.E.M. in there, but we took it out,” said James “That wasn’t included because we got the increase in tax levy some years ago, to pay for the lease of that building, so we took it out of the bond. So the $3.7 million bond that we’ve got right now, $2.5 million of that has been received by the district and the list of projects that are included in the $2.5 million. And there is another balance of $1.19 million, which has been approved to make up the $3.7 million, and that’s money still being held by the city. The money has been generated, but the city is holding that. That’s what I understood from the city business administrator, Mr. (Chris) Hartwyk.”

“We have not used the bond money as part of the development or the acquisition of the lease of the Marylawn building.”

James said he wants to clear up a misconception about how the district was able to get the new S.T.E.M. Academy up and running. He also said he wants Orange taxpayers to know that the district only has a $1 million budget surplus, not the $6-plus million some Board of Education special election candidates have been claiming exists.

“We used our tax levy as part of the funding for the lease of that building,” said James. “There was about $600,000 that was increased in the tax levy some years ago to provide funds for the district to pay for the lease of that STEM Academy building. There’s nothing hidden about it.”

  Adekunle James, STEM Innovation Academy of the Oranges