Work Begins On $6.5M Expansion Project At Parsippany School District

PARSIPPANY, NJ — The Parsippany-Troy Hills School District recently began building on a year-long construction plan designed to offset the township's anticipated increasing school enrollment.

Last week, members of the Board of Education, administration, and the community gathered at Littleton Elementary School for a ceremonial groundbreaking to kick off the building of six new classrooms and a small group teaching space.

The district's capital reserve fund is funding the $6.5 million expansion project. Because of the conservative spending criteria of the board of education and the office of the interim school business administrator, Robin Tedesco, the district is able to fund the project without additional taxpayer dollars.

Over the years, the district has purposefully set up reserves to fund initiatives like these, sparing households from escalating costs.

"With all the residential building going on in Parsippany and our elementary schools already at capacity, we worked with our architects to identify the best school to start a much-needed expansion project," Alison Cogan, Board President, said.

The increase in development projects around Parsippany has caused residents to express concerns about whether the school system will be overburdened and how the roads will handle the increased traffic.

"This is something we have been planning for quite a long time. This is something that has been in the works for probably seven years, and we are very excited to break ground. This is one portion of a greater plan to welcome all the new residents to Parsippany from the residential buildings," Cogan said.

Construction is now underway on a massive housing complex in the Parsippany neighborhood that will include 75 townhomes and hundreds of multifamily flats. A cluster of buildings is being constructed at PARQ to replace office buildings that were razed last year at the Lanidex East office park off Parsippany Road.

The project is located near the junction of Routes 287 and 80.

A second significant redevelopment project, which will add 325 new houses to the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills, also recently broke ground. The 26-acre property at 100 Cherry Hill Road will contain two four-story towers with 162 and 163 units built over a ground-level parking structure.

Parsippany resident Daniela Valenzano previously questioned how the school district was going to handle overcrowding on the school buses. "All of my children went to Eastlake, Brooklawn, and Parsippany Hills. They were overcrowded then. They are overcrowded now."

Valenzano stated that the school board was underestimating the number of children who would join the district with the addition of more than 500 housing units in the township.

In response, Attorney Joseph O'Neil stated that the law states that the school board is only responsible for transporting students two miles or further. However, the township had agreed to provide busing.

"We are going to take care of it," O'Neil said.

The extra classrooms at Littleton will consist of preschool and kindergarten classrooms with self-contained bathrooms, small classrooms for resource room instruction, and a small office for child study team members.

According to school district officials, the new classrooms are expected to be completed by the end of the school year.