Billy, glad you tagged yourself with a photo.
And yes that is a great idea, the first time I heard about it was from Engravalle just about the time of the referendum failed. We simply need more space and that idea seems to be the more pragmatic, please keep in mind the state of the art buildings are still going to cost a lot and it will come directlyout of FT Lee's residents pockets becasue there is so little if any funding/grants.

These issues of overcrowding existed 20 years ago and were not dealt with appropriately by those BOE's and former adminstration. Lets get it right this time!

Tracy, theres another issue, I wouldn't trust Engravalle with our money, as you can see, he fires people on the whim, and couldn't care less what parents and kids think about it. I don't want that type of person anywhere near my or anyone else's money.

Ft Lee BM-- I trust Engravalle,and the BA, and the assistant super-- he has made more improvement in this district in six months than the previous ones did in six years. He had to make some tough choices, the BOE upheld them. We will never know why these teachers were not renewed, they did not go public. I wish them well and I am sure that they will be better off in the long run.
As far as money management goes-- nothing gets by without multiple approvals-- its just that way. I think we, as a community need to put pressure on the BOE to find additional solutions for the incredible overcrowding and try to take advantage of the lower cost bids that are coming in for facilities across the state. We will be footing the bill, its lower proced construction that we cannot allow to pass by again!

Art, I don't have time to look back at discussions from years ago, and I heard this recently, so I posted about it. The first two referendums were severely flawed.

Art, I believe your comment regarding Nina Levinson was a cheap shot. You are not going to find a more dedicated and concerned citizen than Nina. She has been a hero to the property tax payer of Fort Lee---especially,to the one to two family home owner. The first two referendums were seriously flawed----we would have lost part of our park, created additional traffic, confused both students + parents and added hundreds of dollars more than what was estimated to the homeowners property tax bill. Nina as well as many others clearly saw that. If Fort Lee wants to maintain one and two family homes, both the borough and school officials need to be sensitive to the homeowners or else we will just have high rises here. Yes, Nina has every right to question the impact that the area 5 high rises may have on our schools. The developers should have been held more accountable for any potential overcrowding but I fear the burden will once again fall on the property owners.

That can be blamed on no one except our former superintendent Raymond Bandlow and the Board of Education. If they had planned the referendum more carefully, they would have gotten it passed the first time around.

Actually no, the main factor in why I was against it was that they were planning to build on a park. I could have overlooked the other negatives. Don't say I don't care, because I care. I care that those two referendums included a plan to build a school on a park that Fort Lee's children have used for decades and still use. I care that if we approved that referendum, our tax dollars would be used to build a new school so that Bandlow could move to another town and boast of how successful he was in Fort Lee. Oh wait, he already did that, didn't work out very well.

The Park's Dept building is on a very small lot, if you had bothered to drop by there and look some time, you'd see that.

Art, you've known me on here long enough to know that I am not trying to give anyone the impression that I am actually Billy Mays.

The only reason I put that photo up was so that people could distinguish between me and the nut job who keeps trying to impersonate me.

Because I see him as having been a successful businessman, he made people want crap they didn't need. He made tons of money off of 30 second commercials. A great example of a man that gave himself a name and tons of money.

I'll gladly take the photo down as soon as that person stops making fake profiles.

The Middle School is built on a swamp and it was originally planned to be two stories but the foundation began sinking. I'd be fine with a new school, just not if our park has to be sacrificed. Expansion is a good idea.

Yeah, but Engravalle would say that it isn't his job to attend the meetings.

How do you know? If it was built somewhere else I would have gladly voted for it.