A field house of their own

The Upper Freehold Regional School District is considering leasing the Robbinsville Field House off exit 7 on Route 195 for its middle school gym classes. Above: A look at the inside of the 60,000-square-foot facility with a full-scale regulation field of synthetic turf. Below: A look at the single-layer membrane structure that allows natural sunlight in to make players feel as if they are outdoors. ALLENTOWN - Students who have been cramming into gym classes for physical education over the past few years may get relief come September.

The Upper Freehold Regional School District has not had enough room to properly accommodate gym classes due to overcrowding in its elementary/middle school. The district is currently in the process of building a newmiddle school to solve crowding issues, but the facility will not be finished until 2010.

Since the beginning of the school year, Superintendent of Schools Dick Fitzpatrick has been working with the elementary and middle school principals to try to come up with creative solutions to provide a proper physical education program for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

"Our shortage of space continues to create a number of issues that make it a challenge to provide services with the limited core facilities currently available," Fitzpatrick said. "Adding cottages [trailers] adds classroom space, but our issues are with supportive areas and we can't just add a gym." Middle school teachers have been walking students to theAllentown High School's gymnasium for physical education classes. That gym, however, can only bemade available to middle school students when high school students are taking the health class portion of their physical education.

"The administration of the high school has been extremely helpful and has provided space when program changes allow such as the cycling of the health and physical education classes," Fitzpatrick said. "Unfortunately, this solution has had limited success because of inconsistency in the schedule."

Fitzpatrick said he recently found a possible solution that would allow the district to offer its middle school students a special setting for physical education "that will demonstrate they have not been forgotten in the delay in the construction of what was to be their new school."

Fitzpatrick has been in contact with the owners of the Robbinsville Field House, which is located located at 153 West Manor Way in Robbinsville, just off exit 7 on Route 195, and just two miles, or five minutes away from the school district's campus.

"They are very interested in establishing a relationship with us and are eager to accommodate our needs," Fitzpatrick said. "They arewilling to lease space to us for any number of days between two and five on a weekly basis for the 36-week school year."

Fitzpatrick said the field house would provide the school district access between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. and would have a sitemanager present during that time.

"They would provide for all of the utility costs andwewould pay amonthly rental fee based upon a mutually agreed upon lease," Fitzpatrick said.

The lease would cost $36,000 for four hours per day, two days per week for 36 weeks. If the school district makes an annual commitment, the field house would offer a 10 percent discount, which would bring the cost down to $32,400, according to Fitzpatrick.

The full cost to the district for using the field house is estimated at $49,320 and includes $7,020 for busing costs and $9,900 for a nurse's aide trained in first aid and CPR, according to Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick said that the school district's proposed 2008-09 budget includes the money necessary to cover all of the costs of using the field house. Since the board first started looking at the school district's proposed budget on Feb. 6, the spending plan has undergone some revenue changes, which has made the field house option possible, he said. As of Feb. 13, the $35.8 million spending plan underwent revenue additions of $187,131 in ChoiceAid and $159,623 in separation agreement adjustments. The additional funding has helped the school district come up with the necessary funding to pay for the field house use and other items that it initially did not think it would be able to fund in the upcoming school year. However, Fitzpatrick noted that Upper Freehold and Allentown residents must pass the budget in a vote on April 15 to ensure the district has all necessary funding.

According to Fitzpatrick, students in grades 7-8 would take physical education in the field house. He said the school district would also consider sending sixth graders there for gym, but remains uncertain about doing so at this time.

Jamal Lundy, the field house's general manager, said that it feels great to be involvedwith the school district and to be able to help it resolve some of its space issues.

He said that he is aware of the school district having to pack two classes into single gym periods in order to provide all of its studentswith physical educationwhilewaiting for the new school to be built.

"If we help in the transition, all of the kids will have ample room to be as creative as they want to be doing the activities that their teachers allowthemto do," Lundy said.

Lundy said the field house measures 60,000 square feet. He said the climate-controlled facility has radiant floor heating and a full-scale regulation field that measures 300 feet by 150 feet.

"The kids are going to get a chance to play where a lot of professionals play," he said. "They will play on advanced technology synthetic turf, the same kind of turf that the Philadelphia Eagles play on."

Fitzpatrick said, "I cannot tell you how happy I amfor these kids.We will be giving them a physical education class that meets the highest standards."

Fitzpatrick said the district would use the field house to at least accommodate 13 sections of kids. If the district uses the facility for its sixth-graders, another six sections of students would use it as well.