The West Windsor-Plainsboro school board on February 9 gave the go-ahead to the WW-P Athletic Foundation to begin raising money to pay for the installation of lights on the athletic fields at both high schools.
The move came despite continued opposition from neighbors, who questioned whether the board could guarantee that no public funding would be used for maintenance and other costs associated with the lights in future budgets.
Ravi Jumani, a neighbor of High School North in Plainsboro, said he did not hear a guarantee that all of the expenses associated with the lights would be covered by fundraising because the board does not know the costs associated with the venture, yet still wants to approve the fundraising for it. “Fundraising will not be easy and is not a sure thing. Is it prudent to open the door to a future tax liability?”
Canoe Brook Drive resident Neale Campanella pointed out that a guarantee made by this board is not binding on future ones. “How can this board guarantee there will be no future tax money used?”
Opponents also referred to past proposals for installation of the lights, which were denied, and took issue with a report released by an independent committee commissioned by the board to research the issue.
Quoting from the report, Nassau Place resident Paul Vanderwerf said that while the report said there was no evidence that installing the lights would decrease property values in the neighborhood, “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
In the report, the independent committee members wrote that they had spoken to realtors, who told them they did not believe that the installation of lights would have a significant effect on property values.
Opponents also pointed to statements in the report that South Principal Charles Rudnick was against the installation of the lights. Rudnick told the committee that he felt that the negatives of installing the lights outweighed the positives and that the lights would create more wear on the turf fields, possibly increase misbehavior at the events, and impact academics.
“The opinion of the principal needs to be given more weight than that of an allegedly independent committee,” said one woman, who also said two of the members of the independent committee who submitted the report had children in the athletic program, which creates a conflict of interest.
Dick Harbourt, a former school board president, said the board’s job is to ensure that academics take priority over other items concerning the board. “In my opinion, not having these lights does not impact education.”
Another resident read a letter from another former school board president, Dick Snedeker, who told the board in his letter that the issue first surfaced when WW-P High School (now South) first opened in 1973.
Snedeker wrote in his letter that in 1973, board members found that “High School South was neither sufficiently large nor sufficiently remote from nearby residential development to make it a suitable location for lighted playing fields. That is still the case today, and I would urge you to turn down the most recent request.”
Snedeker also pointed out that many of the homes in Colonial Park (Canoe Brook Drive and Nassau Place) were built in the early to mid-1950s — 20 years before the high school opened, and Windsor Drive was developed a few years later, also long before there was a school.
“The program is excellent as it is,” he wrote. “There is no compelling need for lights at this location and the turmoil and hardship they would inevitably produce.”
Supporters of the initiative, however, dismissed the argument that there would be any negative impact to athletes’ academic success by allowing them to play in games held at later times. They said there has not been any negative impact to the students who participate in school dramas or other indoor games that are currently held in the evening.
Manny Efstathios, one of the residents who proposed the installation and who is a part of the WW-P Athletic Foundation, said Rudnick had said during a meeting in the summer that “he would not stand in the way of the lights.”
Efstathios said the report never said the lights would have a negative effect on property values, but rather, the fact that the residents live near the high school does have an impact.
West Windsor resident Pete Weale recalled his own efforts in 2003 to raise money for the installation of the field lights at High School North. Weale said he raised $100,000 on his own — $80,000 to pay for the lights and $20,000 to pay for their installation — and even collected 300 signatures in support of the initiative. At the time, though, school officials turned his proposal down because they were focused on the $26.5 million referendum for construction, he said.
Weale also said that the Subway franchisee owner in Princeton Junction, Ojas Patel, pledged $25,000 to kick off the approval, “but it was too minor to pique the interest of the board.”
Weale also said opposition to his own proposal partly occurred at the time because of the argument that it would not be fair for North to have lights without having them installed at South as well. “I raised the money and thought South could do the same thing.”
Weale said that prior to his efforts to get lights at North, the same issue came up when residents near the West Windsor Little League fields opposed installation of lights there. “The vendor offered to remove the lights’ glare if they spilled over into their yards,” he said after the meeting. “The lights were installed to improve player safety, and the rest is history.”
Weale also said that there is no law barring the board of education from approving the measure. “This can be done without residents’ input or approvals from the municipal government,” Weale said.
“Athletic field lights are enjoyed by millions of high school and community members throughout the USA,” said Weale. “I previously had the list of all the schools using field lights within the state of New Jersey. Residents seem to fear, ‘There goes the neighborhood,’ but the greater fear comes from the lack of community that athletics seems to foster.”
Before approval, Board Vice President Bob Johnson said the most pervasive argument was guaranteeing that future boards will not change the policy or will not be bound by the decisions or regulations created by this board. Still, he was confident that the board could create a policy that was satisfactory to all parties. “Yes, we are faced with difficult decisions, and we’re doing the best job we can,” he said.
Referring to the report submitted by the independent committee, he said “we hear that the report was tainted, yet it was quoted from,” to make other points, he said.
Board member Randall Tucker said he had been volunteering with sports programs and saw nothing but “good sportsmanship. I haven’t seen a circus atmosphere.” Rather, he has seen the sports program engage the students in a positive way.
The Colonial Valley Conference, which is the conference delegating rules for WW-P sports teams, has rules against artificial noise-makers, Tucker added. “I’ve heard cheering students and cheering parents,” he said. “I’ve heard the occasional use of the announcer.” He also said the board could collectively work with neighbors to come up with a usage policy.
Board President Hemant Marathe maintained that the board would make sure the lights are completely paid for before the board approves their installation.
