School Board Approves 5-Year, Roughly $162K A Year Lease For Office Space

The Fort Lee Board of Education Thursday approved a five-year lease agreement for central office space at 2175 Lemoine Ave. at a special public work session.

The lease agreement with Morgan New Jersey Holdings LLC will allow the school district to relocate its administrative offices and clear the way for converting its current office space on Whiteman St. into four new classrooms—a resolution relating to which was approved at a previous BOE regular business meeting.

The lease agreement, which starts on Jan. 1, 2012, comes at a rate of $28 per square foot—a rate that is “frozen” for all five years, according to the resolution passed Thursday—and comes with three rent-free months.

Total square footage of the space, comprising the entire sixth floor of the building, is 5,780 for a total of $161,840 a year.

Business Administrator Cheryl Balletto said the board considered five other properties before settling on the Lemoine Ave. location.

“After narrowing it down and going back-and-forth with a few places, this appears to be the best deal we could get for the needs of our district,” she said.

Board president Arthur Levine noted, “That school is overstretched; clearly,” in reference to School No. 1, which will be the beneficiary of four new classrooms as a result of the move, by about 40 percent.

“We need the additional classrooms,” Levine said. “We couldn’t build an administrative building, certainly. We heard the voters, and we respect their wishes. So we went out and got the most cost-effective, appropriate space we could.”

Balletto said the lease agreement comes with 23 reserved parking spots to accommodate the 15 to 18 people working in the office at any given time and visitors. She also said there is as yet no estimate on what the cost of moving will be.

Board member Charlie Luppino called the decision a “byproduct of not passing the referendum.”

“Instead of trailers this time around, we decided to move the whole board office,” Luppino said. “When one thing gets knocked down in a way you have to replace it.”

Luppino added, “There’s a lot of eyes turning away from situations that might be hazardous so repairs are a must; we need to take care of them.”

“Hopefully the referendum will pass,” Luppino said. “Otherwise we’re going to have to cut other stuff out. As long as I’m on this board, I will fight for what’s right for this town and what needs to be done for us to educate our kids properly.”

Levine offered “any stakeholder” a tour of the schools to see firsthand the ailing infrastructure and overcrowding that “plague us and plague our students.”

“We’re willing to do that because it’s that important,” Levine said. “There are people out there who say we really don’t need it. In days of spit and glue world, we’re at a critical point in the time for our schools.”

Levine said he would announce dates for such tours in the near future.

According to the lease agreement resolution approved by the BOE at Thursday’s meeting, “Once the attorney review process has been completed the Board of Education will approve a final lease agreement at a later date.”

That means the issue will appear on a future regular business meeting agenda, at which time the public will have another chance to comment or raise concerns, Levine said in response to some who suggested Thursday’s 7:00 p.m. meeting was too early.