The Central New Jersey Home News from New Brunswick, New Jersey • 46

A8 THE HOME NEWS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1994 31 School change Rutgers officials are strongly suggesting that fans attending tomorrow's Scarlet Knights season opener at Rutgers Stadium avoid the Easton AvenueRiver Road approach from Route 287, and instead head in from the north via Exit 2 on Route 287. id on the board flji 3 hot issues keep Trenton, educators busy (I I Rutgers! j9Xjk: Stadium JSr Mf New Brki9rr3 fC Brunswick fft (J I V4 Stadium fear traffic 'J itflihii in'fr -i it-t' JOIMCLACCHINThe Home News Mark Scheid of the Rutgers Uolvefslty Alterations Department applies oakif to the cinder block walls of the ticket booth at the main entrance to Kutgers stadium essary to make poor and wealthy districts equal, but thinks differently. She said she can, meet the court order while not in-(!) creasing the $4.1 billion the state, already spends on school aid. f'( School choice ni The private companies want but the NJEA wants them out. i i-iH New Jersey is the focus of geted efforts by two The Edison Projects and Education Alternatives Inc, that want to run public schools.

NJEA leaders have strongly crit-r icized these companies as focusing too much on profits and 61p enough on how children learn, i 1. "We approach the whole discussion of choice very cautiously," said NJEA spokesman' Ed Richardson. "One has to question the motive of someone involved with running a school with the" premise that the less they spend; the more they will profit." i But the companies say their new energy is needed because schools have failed under the ditional approaches. Meanwhile, state officials pursuing their own choice initia-; lives. Education Commissioner Leo, Klagholz is considering a program that would provide families Jnj, failing school districts the chance to use taxpayer-funded vouchers' to send their children to private schools or other public schools outside their districts.

Klagholz-said yesterday he will reporthii recommendations to Whitman this-month. A The NJEA argues such a program will drain public schools' Tre-j sources. "We view that as the foe ginning of the end of public schools in that community," Rich' ardsonsaid. School violence The summer ushered in several'' announcements of bold plans to curb school violence. But after the initial flurry of attention, the "Safe Schools" plan is stalled.

The plan would give principals broader powers to toss out violent students. Klagholz wants lpgis- lative support for the plan. Lawmakers, though, are for the state Board of Education to adopt Klagholz's proposal for- 1 mally in November before moving ahead on any bills. Kl Klagholz and Whitman also'j want to expand the role of the state's alternative schools, noW in' place in 20 of 2 1 counties. 1 J1 Whitman and Klagholz not dhl' want those schools to continue' 1 helping suspended students, but also to serve as a transition -for" young people just released frbtt correctional facilities.

Alternative' schools offer smaller classes, ble schedules and one-on-one sup port from teachers. rv-. Celeste E. Smith is the Asbvtty Park Press education writer. w.

TRAFFIC RU The Home News RUTGERS: neighbors Continued from page Al Like others in the area, Petracca has many not-so-fond memories of the old stadium, which had just half the seats of its current incarnation. The memories include interminable waits trying to turn from side streets onto traffic-clogged River Road. Football fans illegally parked on the grass opposite Golf-links Drive homes, or on both sides of adjacent Stafford Lane. One Stafford Lane couple said fans used to leave bottles and cigarette wrappers behind on their street. Before the old stadium closed, the couple, who did not want to be named, were treated to the sight of some young male fans changing clothes in front of their house.

But it's the people whose cars line their street, turning it into a parking lot, who bug the couple most. They said they asked the township to enact a residents-only parking ordinance in the area, or better yet, to patrol it during games. Instead, they got a bunch of "No Parking" signs to put up themselves. "They'd take the sign, pull it out of the ground and throw it in my yard," said the man, referring to the errant parkers. Despite the gripes, people living near the stadium displayed a kind of weary resignation.

There's not much the little guy can do, they said, if what the little guy wants disrupts the big university's plans. "I guess Rutgers did it at the expense of the residents. I don't think they're concerned," said Mi By CELESTE E. SMITH Special to The Home News School's open, and so is the debate over the best way to improve public schools. Educators and lawmakers are wrangling over possible solutions to three issues that will dominate the agenda state funding for local districts, school choice and school violence.

Gov. Christie Whitman and lawmakers working toward a new school aid formula must conquer a problem few states have mastered coming up with a plan that improves poor districts without siphoning money away from middle-income schools. The school-choice battlefront pits the state's largest teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association, against private companies that want to run public schools. The union is also poised to take on legislators pushing for voucher programs that would help students attend private schools on taxpayers' funds. And a "Safe Schools" initiative promises to curb classroom violence by giving principals more power to toss out bad kids a step awaiting the Legislature's backing.

They re all going to be domi nant themes throughout the coming year," said Frank Belluscio, New Jersey School Boards Association spokesman. Belluscio said while the impact will be felt most strongly in the classroom, local school boards will be relatively shut out of the debate because the issues will be decided at the Statehouse. Funding With New Jersey under state Su preme Court order to raise spend ing in poor districts to equal wealthy ones, the middle-class schools are worried that more money for urban districts will mean less money for them. Urban districts are also un happy. They say although the 1990 school funding law pro vided poor schools with more cash, even more money is needed to work with such special conditions as needy children and crum bling buildings.

State officials want to imple ment a new formula by fall 1996. They say that will give the state enough time to close the spending gap between wealthy and poor districts by the court-ordered deadline of 1997-98. Some estimate new taxes are needed to raise the $450 million to 1 .8 billion that would be nec- S'-C 'Ar XM "ir -r 'i but ms the city parking authority's Ferren Mali Deck on Albany Street. There will be a free shuttle service to the stadium from there. Aiid Casitaline has more sugges- tiOftt, he said this week, be- XPg tlcK oa nis "st.

You doht have a parking pass, go right Rutgers Ifluls Brown Athletic on the Livingston College canu inc siauium is on ncigu boring Busch campus), has 3,000 parking spaces. "'J'Twb, Castaline continued, "If Voo rare: coming to the athletic center, access it off of Exit 2 of .287," said Castaline, "If youVt coming on the Turnpike south, use exit 10." Drivers can get on Route 287 from there, and come as described above. In the Senate from New Jersey, Democrat Bill Bradley ranked 31st out of 100 with a total of billion; and Democrat Frank Lautenberg placed 4 1st with billion. Sen. Bennett Johnston, ranked highest in the Senate with total of 3 billion, just ahead of Nevada's two senators Democrat Richard Bryan and Ilarry Johnston called the croup's numbers "baloney," and said the figures skewed his votes official ona offers way Continued front page Al has been working to solve thfe problem for several months, tie and his cohorts' have devised an elaborate parking system in which fane haV to hirv thHr mfkini? passes at the same time rHev bay theif 1 They've secure that will be up oh routes 1 and 287 Saturday; there's anbthei- fof the Turnpike if that becomes nec- essary They've arranged foir tiaffic up dates to be broadcast over WCTC-AM (1450) and direction to be given on the Advisory Radio (1610 AM), and they ve put maps and direaions pn every parking pass.

There's also limited help from New Brunswick, where up to 500 cars will be able to park free at on CompuServe tion. "What we're going to be doing is giving the average mern-ber of the unsophisticated public' better access to Congress any lobbyist." -'r At a cost of $350,000 over the last 18 months, the taxpayer group added up results from 1 85 Senate votes and 341 House votes between Jan. 23, 1993 and June chael Nelson, an attorney who lives nearby the stadium on River Road. Although the residents are cynical, officials at both Rutgers and the Piscataway Police Department say they do care how the stadium affects people's lives. Lt.

John Cascella of the Piscataway Police Department's Traffic Safety Division said he worries about the stadium's impact on township residents, especially until the completion of extensive roadwork designed to handle the increased traffic. "The magnitude of the problem on a scale of one to 10, we're probably looking at a seven here," Cascella said. But Cascella said the specific problems of the stadium's closest neighbors simply hadn't come up during his meetings with Rutgers police. He said he now might bring it up and perhaps suggest placing barricades on certain streets during games. Could a police officer be posted to head off stray cars? "If you have the personnel available, sure, you can do it," Cascella said.

"Does Rutgers see the need for that? I don't know, they pay the bill." Rutgers Police Chief Anthony Murphy said his preliminary plan calls for about 70 officers to be posted at various sites during games. But he said it's up to Piscataway to show an officer is needed at a particular site or to put up no-parking signs or pass parking laws. "If the township has an ordinance not to park, we can help them enforce it," Cascella said. Whether they get help or not, stadium neighbors say they've learned the hard way how to coexist with a seasonal nuisance. Spending data to go two weeks, equals 30 megabytes of computer storage space.

That's the equivalent of two Manhattan-size telephone books. CompuServe subscribers will be charged for the time they use the system to search the voting records. A person using a modem would pay $4.80 an hour, while one using a faster modem would pay $9.60 an hour. "This is a technology that will permanently change the relationship between the governed and their government," said Paul Hewitt, executive director of the National Taxpayers Union Founda release. Moore, who graduated from New Brunswick High School in June, had recently ended a long-term relationship with Smith, authorities and her friends said, and they had been engaged to be married.

"She told us that he'd say things to her like, 'If I can't have you, ain't no one going to have said Moore's friend, Rasheedah Adams, 1 5, also of Handy Street. Despite Smith's alleged comments, Moore's neighborhood friends said they were very surprised that Smith would act so Lawmakers to feel gfittbyte PLAN: Rowdy pupils face alternate school The Associated Press WASHINGTON Voters need nly punch a few personal computer keys to learn if their representatives' rhetoric on spending cuts matches their votes in Congress, under a system unveiled yesterday by a conservative taxpayers' group. Among the "Votetally" findings tfiat will be available in mid-September to the estimated 2.3 million CompuServe users: New Jersey lawmakers generally rank in middle when it comes to cutting spending, with Republican Reps. Bob Franks and Dick Zim-tner among the most frugal. The information, which by next year will be updated up to every 30 ot this year.

AawmaKers ana inst taxes and for de-their staff reviewed the jdata fos fcnse spending, two 4 in the. House, Zimmer scored The group ranked lawmakers by third from' the bottom, voting for subtracting the amount of tuts 4 aggregate of $63.5 billion in they approved from the amount of 'Cuts. Franks placed eighth from spending they voted for. A highef tiie bdttorn, supporting an aggre-ranking mean? abigger gare.o 56.4 billion in cuts. SHOT: Ex-fiance wounds teeii kills himself Middlesex County College saidu it doesn't have space for such a school, according to Jane superintendent of the county's Ed- ucational Services Commission; i rwA Henry said she is speaking Rutgers University officials about -housing the program there.

If that doesn't work, she said, the coftR mission could find property on which to place modular class-') rooms or rent space. n'Ji Roberta Kanarick, dent of the Somerset County dii-' cational Services Commission, said she is close to announcing an'" agreement to run that county's alternate program at a local coIlefeei'T which she declined to name 0i'-Ui Under the department's plan, the state will pay the full cost' the first-year start-up of the neWjj county schools, with and Somerset counties slated to re-1' ceive $200,000 each. In the second year, the state; will cover half the costs, and districts will pay their ows i students' tuition. Student costs at alternative'; schools are usually the same less than at regular according to Jennifer youth services program coordinaJ'i tor at the Department of Educa- tion. i Continued from page Al ready operating in several local districts.

Area superintendents have expressed strong interest in having another, countywide alternative school. New Brunswick Superintendent Ronald Larkin said that's because the schools work, but are expensive to run for individual districts. New Brunswick, for instance, will no longer operate its own alternative program due to budget cuts this year, he said. "The research is so clear in this area, that if you're able to provide an alternate school setting for some of the youngsters, they become quite successful," Larkin said. The alternative schools will be run by a county's educational services commission, which is a consortium of local districts that provide special school services.

Both counties plan to start small, with schools serving only 20-30 students, and then expand as they gain more experience. In handing out grants, the state recommended that counties follow an approach used successfully in Atlantic County, where the alternative school is housed at a community college. "He was a very calm person, He the Moofe home yesterday, was always very nice' to us. He fate to attend Middle-never had an attitadc: when County College, said Nancy talked as," said Adam Mahoney, the principal at Central didn't know why the couple hajT' Galley School in Sayreville, where broken VfToni) just said hf. Moore fended classes.

"She was did, about a month ft student here, very "She he was playing Mahoney said. Moore was around when he usedio say things cheerleader during high school, like, 'I'm gonna tuft A Adan kid. Adrian Howard, Mfi'ftmiAhe second area shooting Street "He was an rlgftt ujeek Richard "Ricky" 8on: of Powers Street in Neither friend was awake at shot and killed Mon-time of the shooting andhey niorning outside the Sportman didn't see Smith Somerset section of story Franklin: No one has been charged No one atiswered 0('-4yttt. Continued from page Al said. Smith was apparently distraught over the breakup, but investigators did not find a note explaining his actions, Gluck said.

The gun Gluck said, was not licensed, but no other crimes were traced to it. Smith, of 432 Kerrigan Boulevard in Newark, had been sentenced to East Jersey State Prison in Rahway on weapons and drugs charges, Gluck said. The prosecutor but did not have details about the convictions or the date of his.