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The superintendent of schools has suggested that the city's next elementary school include centralized preschool for much of the district, despite uncertainties surrounding the future of local pre-kindergarten as well as the proposed site of the school. In a memorandum to the Board of Education this week, Superintendent William Liess said the school that officials hope to build on county parkland should serve either preschool through second grade or preschool through fifth grade. Liess made the recommendation even as the district is carrying out a sometimes contentious process of determining whether it has enough needy students for whom it must provide half-day Lexington Preschool and full-day kindergarten. "It is understood that at this time the district is not required to provide for preschool and all-day kindergarten," the memo says. "It is recommended, however, that any construction that provides for the future needs of the district consider this requirement, as the completion of such a school is approximately three years away." City schools now offer half-day kindergarten and no preschool, but the state requires comprehensive early childhood education in districts where at least 20 percent of the students get free or discounted lunches. Having just missed the mark last year, the school board for the second consecutive year has undertaken a full verification process expected to last until November. Nevertheless, Liess said at least part of the preschool decision -- that affecting the next school -- should be made within the next several weeks so the school's architect can include it in submissions to the state, which must approve use of parkland for the school. Board members said they would need more time and information to consider the issue, but expressed some sympathy for Liess' point. Matt Ward said, "I think pre-K is inevitable at this point." Board President Wayne Demikoff noted that preschool classrooms, which are typically larger than those for older children, could be adapted to other grades. Going the other way, however, would be difficult, Demikoff said. Because of the proximity of School 12 to the proposed Lexington Avenue site of the new school, Liess said the board could make the new school kindergarten through second grade. In that case, School 12 would be for children in third through fifth grade from the same part of the city. The school would include 10 to 12 classrooms for preschool, serving children from throughout the city and precluding the need to add preschool rooms to all the district's elementary schools. There would also be nine kindergarten classrooms and seven each of first and second grade. Alternatively, the district could build a more standard, preschool-through-fifth-grade school with four classrooms at each level, Liess said. That would be similar to the design proposed for a school on the site of a Lakeview area lumber yard, before contamination problems scuttled the plan. State Department of Environmental Protection officials have given the city, district, and Passaic County preliminary approval to use a county-owned park known as lower Weasel Brook as Clifton's next elementary school site. A state commission is expected to consider the plan in December. Though officials say the mostly paved park fits only a loose definition of the word, the idea has already seen some neighborhood opposition. "It is remarkably unfair to the city residents for the county to neglect the park and then use that as a reason to get rid of the park," Carl Rossi, who lives in the area, said in a recent letter to officials. But city and school officials said the plan will save public money that otherwise would be spent on property. Furthermore, they said the park is conveniently located on the east side, where the city is experiencing much of its population growth. Early tallies indicate that the trend of more students, and more diversity among them, is continuing in Clifton's schools. The question of whether the district has enough poor students to necessitate preschool -- and how far it should go to get an exact count -- has been a source of controversy on the school board.
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