SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — After years of disuse, the site that was once home to Marylawn of the Orange Academy, located on Scotland Road in South Orange, is again housing a school. STEM Innovation Academy of the Oranges, part of the Orange Public School system, opened its doors in September. The high school focuses on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The Marylawn site, which consists of the former Marylawn of the Oranges Academy and historical Graves House, had been owned and operated as a convent by the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth of New Jersey. The sisters decided to sell the property several years ago due to financial woes and a fiscal inability to maintain it. In 2014, Seton Hall University and experts it had hired spent approximately 16 hours testifying before the South Orange Zoning Board of Adjustment in an application for use and bulk variances; however, before the year had ended, SHU withdrew its application and abandoned plans to purchase the property, which it had intended to use for academic and administrative purposes.
Following that, both the South Orange-Maplewood School District and Orange Public Schools expressed interest in purchasing the property. Back in 2015, however, Beth Daugherty, who was SOMA Board of Education president at the time, said the district had stepped back from its pursuit after learning the property was already under contract. But, according to a June 15 letter that SOMA BOE President Elizabeth Baker sent to N.J. Department of Education acting Commissioner Kimberley Harrington, SOMSD renewed its interests to purchase the property after learning that Orange Public Schools would not purchase the property. Ultimately, however, the Orange Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization, purchased the property and is now leasing it to Orange Public Schools.
The SOMA Board of Education had been concerned about Orange Public Schools using the facility, according to Baker’s June 15 letter, citing existing space constraints within the SOMSD and the need for more classroom space.
“The most recent Demographic and Facility Study presented to our Board of Education on April 24, 2017, indicates that (1) all elementary schools in our district are ‘at or above capacity’; (2) ‘all of the portable classrooms are very old and either need replacement or extensive (and expensive) renovations’; and (3) ‘that the District needs to continue to solve issues regarding program equity as well as socioeconomic and racial balancing issues,’” Baker wrote in the June 15 letter. “Our school enrollment has grown by over 6 percent in the last five years. Unfortunately, we are not aware of any available space in South Orange or Maplewood suitable for a school.”
The letter questioned the validity of Orange Public Schools’ imminent use of the property and asked the NJDOE to look into the matter. The NJDOE did not respond by press time to requests for comment from the News-Record.
“Give our demonstrated and critical need for more classroom space, our interest in Marylawn is genuine and immediate. Although we do not minimize the interest of Orange in this property, we believe that the competing interests expressed by two school districts for the identical property requires your immediate review,” Baker wrote in the letter. “Most critically, we ask that the scheduled Marylawn transaction with the Orange (Education) Foundation be delayed until the Department has had the opportunity to review the conflicting interest and needs of both impacted school districts.”
The OEF’s purchase of the Marylawn property and the Orange Public Schools’ leasing of it went ahead. However, Baker told the News-Record that the SOMSD is already working to identify other solutions to the overcrowding problems in the district.
“The district is developing a facilities plan that will meet the short-term and long-term space and programmatic needs for our students,” Baker told the News-Record in a Sept. 18 email. “Last year’s facilities study demonstrated that we need to construct approximately 26 additional classrooms to replace the aging portables at our elementary schools and meet the ongoing high enrollment at the elementary school level. We also need a plan for the renovation and renewal of Columbia High School, both to address the issue of the pool space and ensure that we have state-of-the-art STEAM facilities.”
According to Baker, acting Superintendent of Schools Thomas Ficarra and business administrator Paul Roth are working with the district’s architects to formulate a new plan.
“We anticipate that both an analysis as to the options and recommendations will be made to the board and community by the early to mid-winter,” Baker told the News-Record. “Stakeholder feedback and community support for this facilities work will be critical to the process.”
While the SOMSD is looking to make new plans, the Orange Board of Education is now able to see parts of its own strategic plan come to fruition. The first objective in that plan, located on Page 6, states that the district will open a STEM academy and that, by 2021, “20 percent of the high school age population will be enrolled in the STEM Academy.” Page 86 of the plan calls for the Orange BOE to finalize the contract leasing the Marylawn property.
According to files obtained by the News-Record from Orange Public Schools following an Open Public Records Act request, on May 5, the Orange Board of School Estimate voted 4-0 — one member was absent — to fix and approve the amount of the local tax levy to be raised for Orange Public Schools for the 2017-2018 school year; this budget document set aside funds for the “STEM Program Facility Renovation Project,” but did not mention Marylawn specifically.
On July 11, the Orange Board of Education voted 4-0 — three members were absent — to approve a final negotiated lease agreement with the Orange Education Foundation for the Marylawn of the Oranges high school building in order to create the STEM Innovation Academy. Orange Public Schools provided the News-Record with a copy of a July 6 letter from the N.J. Department of Education approving the lease agreement, also provided in response to the OPRA request.
According to the lease agreement, the lease went into effect June 30, and will remain in effect until June 30, 2042. Orange Public Schools may use the property exclusively for public school purposes, according to the lease. Each month, Orange Public Schools must pay $36,114.48 in rent. Orange Public Schools is responsible for direct costs of operation and maintenance, including water and sewer charges, insurance premiums, utilities, janitorial services, labor, building management, air conditioning, heating, supplies, materials, equipment and tools.
The lease also includes a section addressing what would happen should the property be taken or appropriated by public authority under the power of eminent domain. Should this happen, the funds used by the public entity to purchase the property will first go toward Valley National Bank to pay off the mortgage taken out by the OEF to purchase the property; remaining funds will go to Orange Public Schools, the tenant, rather than the OEF, the landlord.
STEM Innovation Academy Principal Robert Pettit did not respond to requests for comment regarding the size of the student population at the school, or how the first few weeks of school have gone in the South Orange location.
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