The first step towards field lights at both West Windsor-Plainsboro School District High Schools will likely be approved by the school board — despite the objections of neighboring residents — on Tuesday, February 9.
The school board is expected to vote on a resolution that would give the West Windsor-Plainsboro Athletic Foundation the go-ahead to raise money to fund lighting for the playing fields at High Schools North and South.
But residents living in the neighborhoods surrounding the two high school continued to voice opposition to the idea and took offense to what they believe was a “trivializing” of their concerns by board members.
Genevieve Stiefel, a resident of Nassau Place in West Windsor, said she had heard that board members had made comments outside of the public meeting, questioning why residents moved to the area near the high school if they did not want to be disturbed by outdoor school activities. Stiefel said residents who live there had built their homes before the high school was even planned.
“How can you justify firing the lowest paid employees and funding athletic lights? Where are your priorities?” Stiefel asked, referencing the board’s possible privatization of the district’s custodial and maintenance services.
Referring to board members’ comments in favor of the idea at a previous meeting, Canoe Brook Drive resident Steven Campanella said that “building a sense of community” was a noble goal. However, at the at the same time, the board voted to “deprive” employees of the district “of their livelihood,” said Campanella, referencing the board’s decision last month to hire a consultant, Edvocate, to design bid specifications related to the outsourcing of custodial services.
Another Canoe Brook Drive resident said she felt a “strong community should share the same interests — there shouldn’t be some people gaining and some people losing. It shouldn’t be divided at this time.” Instead, the board should consider (West Windsor) Community Park as an alternative.
Other residents criticized the work of the independent committee charged by the board with finding the pros and cons of field light installation. Ravi Jumani, of Blossom Hill Drive, which faces the back of the High School North playing fields, said the committee failed to contact any of the residents living around the school for their opinions.
Jordan Moses, of Canoe Brook Drive, said installation of the lights “comes with serious problems and ramifications.” She also attacked the objectivity of the independent committee, saying that of the four parents on the committee, two had children in the athletic program.
Litter, speeding cars, and vandalism will come with field lighting, Moses said, adding that she can picture a racetrack by day, with advertisements along the fields (proposed to be used to pay for the lighting), and a circus by night. Pointing to South Principal Charles Rudnick’s opposition to the field lights, she said he “understands the negatives outweigh the positives.”
West Windsor Council President George Borek also spoke out against the field light installation, but cited a different reason: an unresolved situation already affecting residents on Penn Lyle Road, who have been burdened with lights shining into their homes for the past two and a half years, ever since High School South was renovated and the addition was added. “You haven’t taken care of that issue, and now you’re going to create a bigger problem,” he said.
Still, board members emphasized they have not made a decision regarding the actual installation. That will come once the fundraising is complete, a cost analysis is done and more financial information provided, and policies are written to address the residents’ concerns and to set strict limits on field use once lights are installed.
Board President Hemant Marathe said the resolution was just the beginning of the process. Marathe did, however, take the blame for the committee’s failure to contact High School North neighbors, saying he overlooked E-mails from residents in those neighborhoods during the process.
Board vice president Robert Johnson said he “certainly never meant to trivialize the concerns of my neighbors,” when he commented in favor of the lights during a previous meeting. He said what he meant to say was that “I saw no evidence that the installation of lights would decrease property values.”
Johnson said he felt the “board needed to, in some formal fashion, approve or stop the efforts for fundraising” by the West Windsor-Plainsboro athletic foundation, which has requested direction from the board. He proposed the idea of passing a resolution at the meeting on Tuesday, February 9.
Board member Ellen Walsh said the board is most concerned with setting policies that will allow “reasonable usage” of the fields with the new lighting.
