Our View

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Clearing snow can sometimes become a bit hazardous, as an intrepid Freehold Borough resident learned while clearing a sidewalk along East Main Street and Jackson Terrace on Monday.

Residents of Manalapan and Englishtown should take note of a story in today’s News Transcript that reports on a construction referendum to be put before them by the Manalapan-Englishtown Reg-ional School District Board of Education. The question may be on the ballot in September.

Initial plans being discussed point to the construction of two additions at the Manalapan-Eng-lishtown Middle School (MEMS) totaling 22 classrooms and an auxiliary gymnasium, and one addition at the Clark Mills School to house all of the district’s kindergarten pupils. There is no estimate at this point for the cost of the construction projects or for the impact the projects will have on property taxes.

Superintendent of Schools Maureen Lally said this proposal is not set in stone. There will be additional meetings for input from the public on Feb. 25 at 10:30 a.m. and on Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at MEMS. There will be a regularly scheduled meeting at Clark Mills School on Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. Suggestions from the public will also be heard at that time.

Previous information provided by the school district has highlighted the situation at MEMS, which presently has a student body of 1,386 seventh- and eighth-graders, which is about 284 more than the suggested capacity.

That would be acceptable if the students did not have to move from class to class, but it is unacceptable in a middle school setting that requires movement from one class to another.

At MEMS there are nine teachers using carts to go from room to room. The auditorium is used for communications and humanities classes. Other accommodations have been made in order to deal with the crowded conditions.

Residents who want to comment on how the district plans to grow should use the scheduled public meetings to make the board aware of their feelings.