New Brunswick community opposes potential closure of local school

A group of parents, Rutgers University students and members of the commute held a meeting Monday evening to express their concern about the possibility of a local school closing.

News 12 Staff

Feb 4, 2020, 3:54 AM

Updated 1,712 days ago

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A group of parents, Rutgers University students and members of the commute held a meeting Monday evening to express their concern about the possibility of a local school closing.
The group says that they want to stop a possible closure of Lincoln Annex School on Somerset Street in New Brunswick.
“Let the children have their school. It’s our neighborhood school and it should be left alone,” says New Brunswick resident Linda Stork.
The school opened in 2016, after purchasing and renovating the former Saint Peter’s School. The New Brunswick School District opened it to students in grades 3 through 8.
“Our money, $22 million of our money, went to reopening this school,” says Charlie Kratovil of the 5th and 6th Ward Neighborhood Association. “How could they possibly throw that away after just three or four years?”
Kratovil says that Lincoln Annex is one of the best performing schools in New Brunswick.
“It’s a neighborhood school that the families can actually walk to,” he says.
Parents say that they are concerned that the school will close before a new school is built, causing students to have to go to a temporary school that is too far away.
Community members tell News 12 New Jersey that Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and the Rutgers Cancer Institute have an interest in purchasing Lincoln Annex, using the building to expand their cancer research facility.
"Find another place to build the center that they want to build. It's a very good thing that they want to do, but we have a lot of space in New Brunswick they can use for that,” says New Brunswick resident Maria Chiquito.
News 12 reached out to officials from New Brunswick Public Schools, the city, Robert Wood Johnson, and Rutgers Cancer Institute for comment, but no one responded.