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N.J. Gets Down to Business with School Repairs

New Jersey is counting on a new public corporation to speed up sorely needed school financing and construction--and end the bureaucratic tangle that was tripping up school districts trying to make improvements or build new facilities.

New Jersey is counting on a new public corporation to speed up sorely needed school financing and construction--and end the bureaucratic tangle that was tripping up school districts trying to make improvements or build new facilities.

The New Jersey Schools Corp. is a response to a law passed two years ago by the New Jersey legislature that allocated $8.6 billion in state and local funds to fix and construct schools in needy, urban school districts, as mandated by a state Supreme Court ruling. However, it became apparent that the law fell short of what was promised, Governor James McGreevey said at a July news conference. As many as four different agencies would end up evaluating repair or construction plans, one at a time, before passing those plans on to the next agency.

Under the new system administered by the schools corporation, several state agencies involved in the process review plans simultaneously, and a board of directors made up of agency heads oversees the program.

As of the end of July, work on one-third of the 403 schools identified by the Supreme Court as needing repairs was underway or completed. The governor has mandated that 90 percent of health and safety repairs required be started by the end of this year, with the rest to be completely done by next year.

The state created the schools corporation as a subsidiary of its Economic Development Authority. "It made it much more efficient than starting anew," says Caren Franzini, executive director of the Development Authority. The corporation is headed by Alfred NcNeill, the former chief executive officer of one of the country's largest building and construction companies.

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