In the fall of 1999, Prospect Park voters approved a bond issue to improve and add
to their school - the only school in their small town. The vote wasn't even close: 277-150.
A relieved school board president, Al Demarest, exclaimed that October night,
"Good Lord! The people just believed!"

That school year, 1999-2000, New Jersey topped all states and the District of Columbia
in spending per pupil - $10,238 (New York was second, $10,039). There was a lot of
grumbling among taxpayers, the charter school movement was getting under way, and
even national candidates were making political hay lambasting the educational spenders.
That year there were 12 bond referendums for school districts in Bergen and Passaic
counties; Prospect Park's was one of only three approved.

Prospect Park's bond issue was for $8.9 million, almost double the district's annual school
budget. The money would add classrooms, a library/ media center, and a gym to the K-8
school, which was built in the first decade of the 20th century. The school was designed to
house 464 students, but by 1999 there were 711 students and classrooms were held in
every cranny. There had been a small addition in the 1970s and a cafeteria added in the
1980s, but this would be the first major addition, with classrooms being built where the
parking lot stood.

This month the additions were to open. In August, however, school officials determined
that they wouldn't be ready Sept. 3, when schools throughout the state opened; the
opening of school in Prospect Park was delayed until Sept. 11. However, on Sept. 10,
the fire-alarm system wasn't working, so the opening was again pushed back. That day,
members of the mayor and council, several school staffers, and School Superintendent
James Barriale hit the streets with fliers to let parents and students know about the delay.

The next day - that gloriously sunny and windy Sept. 11 - a mere 10 students showed
up for the start of school.

They were met by staffers and escorted home, where it was explained why the start of
school had once again been reset, this time to Wednesday, Sept. 18. Superintendent Barriale
said that he received no complaints when the delays were announced.

There were questions concerning the state of construction and how he would schedule
makeup days in order to reach the state-mandated 180, he said, but he heard not one
complaint from parents or students.

An against-the-odds approval for more spending, and an almost inconceivably serene
acceptance of two last-minute delays for the opening of the school year - clearly
something right is going on between the Prospect Park community and the people
who run its school.

"We're fortunate," Barriale said with a little understatement Tuesday while taking a break
from the hectic chore of making sure the school was ready to receive students today. "We
do get a lot of support and appreciation from our community. Frankly, that support is one
of the reasons I've stayed here these 20 years."

Prospect Park is a postage-stamp-sized borough of 5,779 residents abutting Paterson.
It was always working-class, and the 2000 Census pegged its median household income
at $46,434, ranking 77th of the 86 communities in Bergen and Passaic counties. For most
of its existence, Prospect Park was a Dutch enclave, almost all white. In 1982, when Barriale
was hired as principal, many of the residents were senior citizens, and the new blood came
mainly from immigrants from Syria and Jordan. Since then, a diverse group has moved in:
Last year, one class of 75 students held a pitch-in smorgasbord, and food was brought
representing 40 nations of the origin of their families.

Why does Prospect Park, with its varied and generally low-income residents, generate
so much support for its school?

"One thing we've done over the years," answered Barriale, "is not shove anything down
the throats of our residents. In 1999, before the referendum, the superintendent then,
Thomas Vannatta, and I spent a lot of time talking to groups. We explained to the PTA
why the addition was needed. We went out to talk to senior citizens, who, we feared,
would not support us. I think we did pretty well [in the referendum] because they could
see what we needed."

Another thing that school officials did to sway many voters to their side was to craft the
school addition so that it would be of use to all residents, not just students.

"We don't have a library in Prospect Park," Barriale added. "That has always been a concern
from an educational standpoint. With this addition, we'll have a library, and it will be open to
all residents, not only schoolchildren. That is important to our community, especially because
we have so many immigrants. We'll also have a tech center. The computers are not just for
our kids, but will be used to offer computer literacy programs to all our residents.

"You know, we have about a 35 percent transient rate in our schools. That's difficult - we
work to help them understand English, then they move and we start all over again. Well,
we want to open our school to hold English as a Second Language classes to all our residents.

"We told them that when we talked about the addition. The addition would not only be for
their children, but for them. It's like when I grew up, the schools were open to everyone;
that's what we want here. We not only want to educate the parents, but to get them involved
in their children's education."

That message - that the school was for everyone - was a key factor, Barriale believes, in
cementing the bond between the residents and their schoolhouse. The fact that the bond is
still strong is attested by the absence of complaints after the opening was delayed this year:
Parents had to adjust their day-care plans, but they did not blast the school administrators
with blame bombs.

"We're fortunate," Barriale reiterated. "Our parents and community are cooperative."

That's true because Prospect Park's school officials have worked hard to earn that cooperation.

Patricia Fisher held the hand of her son, Dvonte, whose wide eyes scanned the crowd
outside the Prospect Park School. "He was excited at first," she said, "but now he's
nervous because he sees all those big kids."

It was Dvonte's first day at kindergarten, and his excitement had been building since
last Wednesday, the day the newly renovated school was to open. But the day before
the school bell was to summon 750 students, it was determined that the new fire alarm
system didn't work properly and that other unfinished parts of the $8.9 million renovation
might make the school dirty and unsafe.

A workman was caulking windows Wednesday morning and carpenters were installing
the ceiling of the media center, which will not be open until late October, but the rest of
the school seemed to glow, the light blue walls as yet not smudged by dirty fingers.

The renovation added eight classrooms, rooms for science, art, music and technology,
as well as six "small-group" rooms, Superintendent James Barriale said. School offices
were refurbished and the 100-year old building was brought up to fire and safety codes,
he said.

Some parents worried about the delayed opening. Rosa Nunez, who led her son to his
second-grade classroom, fears that "he lost some time when he could have been learning
things." But the school calendar will be adjusted, officials said, to make sure that classes
are held for 180 days, the number required by state law. The school's February break has
been cancelled, Principal Allison Angermeyer said.

Other parents had to scramble to find child care for an additional week, but few
complained. "I didn't get any angry calls," said Angermeyer. "we're a small town and
it's like we are all family."

Additional classroom space was needed because enrollment has grown dramatically in
recent years, outpacing the capacity of a 1980 addition. A steady growth in the student
population is expected for several more years, according to a study by the state
Department of Education.

Karen Wighard, whose two older sons have graduated from the school, accompanied
her youngest son, now a third-grader, to the opening. She had not yet seen the latest
changes, but praised the earlier phases of the renovation.

"They're making it really beautiful," she said.

Some of the changes are dramatic. The massive wooden staircase that was just inside
the main door on Brown Avenue, its steps grooved by generations of small feet, is gone.
But the worn wooden floors in parts of the old building have been preserved, and modern
ceiling tiles replicate the look of the embossed metal that was overhead when Dorothy Bolton
entered first grade years ago.

"I went here, my children went here, and now my grandchildren are here," said Bolton,
a Prospect Park resident for 65 years.

The young scholars streaming into the school Wednesday morning did not know that the tall,
gray-haired man leaning against the front door was the person to thank for their extra week
of summer fun. David Heerema, Prospect Park's building inspector, silenced the opening-day
bell because the new fire alarms were not properly connected to a central reporting office
and some smoke detectors were not yet working. Wednesday, everything was in order, he said.

Heerema showed a visitor how fireproof doors between the old and new parts of the
building were held open with magnets that would release and close the doors if smoke
was detected. Some hallway windows were also bricked up, he said, so that a fire could
not spread from one part of the building to the other.

The renovations were financed partly through a $5.6 million grant from the New Jersey
Economic Development Authority. Founded in the mid-1970s to stimulate business growth
and employment in the state, the authority was given the oversight and funding of school
construction and renovation in 2000.

North Haledon won the right Tuesday to withdraw its students from Manchester Regional
High School after a bitter campaign that pitted the borough against the district's other two
towns - Haledon and Prospect Park.

Of the 7,483 ballots cast in the three towns, 4,516 were in favor of the withdrawal
and 2,967 opposed.

Nearly 75 percent of the registered voters in North Haledon turned out to cast votes
in favor of pulling the town's high school students out of the district, which began
operations in 1960. Turnout in the other two boroughs, while high for a municipal
election, was lighter.

The vote in North Haledon was 4,062 in favor and 118 opposed.

Some 1,304 Prospect Park voters - about 40 percent of those registered -
cast ballots, with 1,247 opposing withdrawal and 57 in favor.

In Haledon, 1,526 voters cast ballots, with 1,462 voting against the withdrawal,
and 64 casting affirmative votes.
The votes represented about 40 percent of the town's registered voters.

Absentee ballots in all three towns contributed 333 votes for separation and 140 against.

North Haledon officials most objected to their community carrying most of the tax load
to support the high school. Because of the funding formula established by the state -
based mostly on property values - North Haledon pays three times as much per student
to send its high schoolers to Manchester as do the other two towns.

When the regional district was established, the funding formula determined capital and
debt service costs based on a town's tax ratables, but the operating costs per student
were equal for all towns.

The state changed that formula in the early 1970s, requiring North Haledon to pay a
higher per-student cost. For the last 20 years, North Haledon has been seeking a way
to either equalize costs or withdraw from the district.

A 1995 vote on equalizing the costs was defeated. North Haledon then sued to have the
tax apportionment changed, but lost in appeal before the state Supreme Court.

The next step in the divorce will be determined by the state commissioner of education,
who will set the date when the phased withdrawal will be completed. North Haledon,
which wants to phase its students out in three years, will contract with Midland Park High
School at a per-student rate of $8,250, rather than the $20,000 it pays at Manchester.

But opponents of the withdrawal argued that the savings in tuition would be eroded by
additional costs for such items as transportation and special education students. And they
contended that while North Haledon currently has 143 students at Manchester, a large
number of borough residents now attending private schools would transfer to Midland Park,
raising costs for North Haledon.

The withdrawal debate spawned lawsuits over whether there could be a referendum and
on the wording of the measure. Those involved also have argued bitterly over the real cause
for the withdrawal, with some saying that it was a matter of money and others contending
that North Haledon was fleeing the racial, ethnic, and economic diversity of Manchester for
more homogeneous Midland Park.

Officials in Prospect Park and Haledon predict a rise in their property taxes - perhaps as
much as $400 for the first year, a figure that will likely rise in the future - and leafleted their
towns with pamphlets stressing the cost to them if North Haledon pulls out.

When the polls opened at noon in Prospect Park, about 25 people were lined up outside
the municipal building waiting to cast votes. At Grace Bible Church in North Haledon,
where District 6 voters cast ballots, about 50 people were in line for the two voting
machines 30 minutes after the balloting began.

One of the first voters in Prospect Park was Majed Abaza, for whom the threat of
increased taxes was the reason for his voting no.

"My taxes are already high," Abaza said, "and I can't pay any more than that."

 Another early voter there said she thought there was truth to the allegation that some
North Haledon residents were uneasy with racial and ethnic diversity at Manchester.
The woman, who declined to give her name because "I have friends in North Haledon,"
said "I'd like to see the kids from all three towns kept together."
 But Joesph Yanni, a North Haledon resident who cast his vote at the town's municipal
building said "I'm tired of paying for someone else to go to school, and this has gone
on for too long."
 In Haledon, Ozzie Langnan agrees that there is something wrong with the way the state
sets the formula for funding a regional high school.
 "The system isn't fair to North Haledon," he said, but added that he was voting against
the withdrawal because of the effect on his property taxes. "We have tenants and they
would suffer too," said his wife, Louise, "because we'd have to pass on the tax increase
by raising the rent."
 Atmi Ozda said he came to North Haledon three years ago to take his second
and third grade daughters out of Paterson schools. But, he said, "I believe that
Manchester is really going downhill."

by Scott Fallon

PROSPECT PARK POLITICAL MAKEUP:

MAYOR: Democrat.

COUNCIL: All six seats are held by Democrats.

AT STAKE:

Four-year mayoralty term and two three-year council seats.

THE CANDIDATES:

MAYOR/DEMOCRATIC

Will Kubofcik*, 36, of East Main Street has been mayor for four years. The former councilman is a Realtor and a volunteer firefighter. Kubofcik has lived in the borough for 30 years. He and his wife, Nuha, are expecting their first child in January.

MAYOR/REPUBLICAN

Waeil Dashoka, 38, of 14th Street, served on the council for five years, holding a variety of leadership positions, including finance chairman. He is a computer data network manager at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. Dashoka also is a special police officer in Haledon - a part-time position that has limited powers of a regular police officer. He is single.

DEMOCRAT/COUNCIL

Thomas Jefferson*, 34, of Haledon Avenue has been on the council for three years. A chemical operator, he has lived in the borough for 10 years. Jefferson is head of the Police Committee. He and his wife, Cathy, have five children.

Pasquale "Pat" Tirri*, 31, of North 17th Street was elected last year to fill a one-year unexpired term. Tirri is a restaurant manager. He is the commissioner of the Board of Recreation and is a member of the Board of Recycling and Solid Waste. He is single.

COUNCIL/REPUBLICAN

Thomas Magura, 59, of North Eighth Street was a councilman from 1997 to 2000 and a trustee on the school board from 1992-97. He works as an assistant helping the disabled at Bergen County Special Services. He is single.

Belkis Drexler, 44, of East Main Street is an inspector at Computer Craft in Hawthorne. She has lived in the borough for 15 years and has three children.

REGISTERED VOTERS:

Undeclared: 1,415; Democrats: 1,242; Republicans: 652; independents: 9. Total: 3,318.

October 25, 2002

PROSPECT PARK - This year's municipal election focuses largely on taxes and rocks - two subjects that are improbably entwined in the borough's politics.

The massive quarry on Planten Avenue operated by Tilcon is at the center of much debate between the Democratic and Republican slates running for mayor and two council seats in the Nov. 5 general election.

The borough government, all Democrats, has been battling the corporate giant for years over its tax assessment, noise pollution, and hours of operation.

Mayor Will Kubofcik and his running mates, Councilmen Thomas M. Jefferson and Pasquale "Pat" Tirri, have said that Tilcon has gradually reduced the quality of life of residents by expanding its operations. They have gone so far as suggesting the company be forced out of Prospect Park.

Republican Waeil Dashoka, who is challenging Kubofcik for the mayoralty, and council running mates Thomas F.X. Magura and Belkis M. Drexler, have said the borough has been too stringent in its dealings with Tilcon, the borough's single largest taxpayer.

The Republican candidates have received campaign contributions from Tilcon (the company bought seats at a fund-raiser dinner) but they said it was nominal and has not affected their position. Dashoka, who said Tilcon gave a "few hundred dollars," filed a pledge with state officials that he and his running mates will not raise more than $8,500 for their campaign. The maximum a contributor can donate without being listed on campaign finance documents is $400.

Kubofcik has raised $3,526, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

The borough recently hired a consulting firm for $15,000 to see if it can acquire the 98-acre quarry and redevelop it. The action was prompted largely by Tilcon's move to lower its tax assessment. Tilcon pays about $160,000 in municipal taxes but wants to reduce it to about a third, claiming that the property is worth only $500,000, not the $1.5 million assessed value.

Redeveloping the quarry as a commercial venture would bring the town at least $2 million in additional taxes, said Kubofcik.

Tilcon also is challenging in court a 2001 ordinance that seeks to regulate its operations.

Kubofcik's challengers said the incumbents' tough dealings have cost taxpayers thousands in legal fees. They also suggested that it may turn away companies wanting to settle in Prospect Park.

"If this was handled differently, we would have a resolution now," Dashoka said. "When I was on council [in the mid-1990s], we had a good relationship with the quarry. I'm not defending the quarry or the borough. The whole situation could have been worked out a lot quicker with a lot less money."

Kubofcik and his supporters disagree. They say the quarry is trying to take advantage of the town and their opponents are too short-sighted to see that.

"It's pretty ugly here," Jefferson said. "Dust covers people's cars. They are destroying the town and yes, we want them out."

The Republicans say an all-Democrat council is not good for the borough because of a lack of dissent.

Magura called the council "puppets for the mayor."

Kubofcik said that is not the case. The all-Democratic governing body performs more efficiently without Republicans on it, he said.

All of the candidates said the borough needs more recreation programs for children and seniors. Most said the funding has to come from private donations and grants, but Jefferson suggested an increase in taxes might be appropriate.

"When you see the results of where your money is going, it's totally different," he said.

October 29, 2002 Herald News
HISPANIC WOMEN LEARN TO BE STRONG
by Whitney Kvasager

PROSPECT PARK - Celeste Feliz's long auburn hair tumbled over the shoulders of her fall-colored shirt as she led her workshop Monday morning.

"What do you think happens if a woman lives with a machismo man, and she wants to speak her mind?" she asked.

The answers came quickly from the audience of 14 women and three men.

"She gets beat down."

"They beat you up."

"If a woman gets out of hand, she gets disciplined."

Feliz's workshop, "Machismo and Violence in the Hispanic Culture," was one of nine that made up "Shameful Knowledge: Violence In Women's Lives," the area's first domestic violence teach-in. The day of workshops was presented at Horizon Behavioral Healthcare on North Sixth Street by workers of Horizon and the Passaic County Women's Center.

The workshops were held in honor of Evelyn Agosto, one of five women suspected of being murdered by their abusers this year on Van Houten Avenue.

There is no definitive number of domestic violence incidents in Passaic County, but in the state, domestic violence has increased by 6 percent. In a report issued in September, State Police said they responded to 82,373 domestic violence incidents in 2001 - 4,693 more than the year before.

Feliz, a counselor at the women's center, worries that most of those abused are Hispanic and South Asian women, because they're strictly brought up to think of themselves as subordinate to men.

She said she mostly works with racial minorities, but "out of 10 in one week, only one is African-American. I think those women are more strong," whereas Hispanic and South Asian women "often only know how to be the wife."

Their traditions of patriarchy, she said, insist that women stay at home.

When women aren't allowed to make their own money, they are financially bound to their abuser, making it harder to leave, she said.

Feliz said there are women's shelters in the area, but only a handful have bilingual counselors, causing many women to return to abusive situations, discouraged.

But, she said, it's workshops like Monday's that help women of all races out of abusive situations.

"The main thing is education," she said. "You don't have to have a college degree to stop domestic violence."

November 06, 2002 Bergen Record
KUBOFCIK WINS SECOND TERM AS MAYOR OF PROSPECT PARK
By Scott Fallon

November 6, 2002   Hawthorne Press
Tilcon Quarry Licensing Hearing Continues On November 13

 The continuation of the quarry licensing hearing in Prospect Park is scheduled for Wednesday, November 13 at 7pm.
 The review will focus on additional engineering reports and other studies which the Tilcon Quarry must provide a part of the licensing process.
 Since the October hearing, the Prospect Park Council has voted to hire a consultant to do a feasibility study on whether the quarry can be designated as an area in need of redevelopment.
 Concerning the move, Joyce Watson, public relations director for Tilcon, issued this statement.
 "We were surprised and disappointed to learn about the proposal. We are now in the review process and don't see any legitimate basis for the redevelopment / condemnation proposal. Tilcon is deeply concerned about this new action by the mayor to shutdown the quarry and we will oppose it. We have complied with previous ordinances and have worked diligently with the town under the new ordinance, at great expense, to meet the conditions. We have been acting in good faith and are disappointed that the Borough would take such an action even though we have voluntarily supplied them with their requests including additional escrow funds and a blasting expert. It would appear that the mayor's personal agenda has taken precedence over public interest. Tilcon's intention is to remain in Prospect Park with asphalt and recycling operations long after the quarry reserves have been exhausted and we will fight vigorously any attempt to take our property and business away."

PROSPECT PARK - Officials are claiming victory in a ruling by a judge this week that the borough's new quarry license law is valid and that the town is allowed to regulate the quarry's asphalt plant.

Tilcon of New Jersey, which operates the quarry, is also dropping the challenge to its tax assessment, officials said, and will continue to pay $150,000 per year in taxes to the borough. Tilcon had argued that the quarry site, which is assessed at $5 million, is worth only $500,000 and should be taxed about $30,000 annually.

Joyce Watson, public relations director for Tilcon of New York and New Jersey, said the company ended its tax challenge as a way of "trying to be a good neighbor to the town."

Superior Court Judge Burrell Ives Humphreys ruled Tuesday that the town has the right to regulate the quarry under the new law, said Richard Cushing, Prospect Park's attorney for the matter. Tilcon had challenged the validity of the law adopted last year, contending that it could only be regulated under the previous, less stringent ordinance.

The judge did strike down one aspect of the law, which would have required the quarry to inform the town about blasting, because all blasting is under state regulation, Cushing said.

But he left in place the town's regulation of the asphalt plant inside the quarry, rejecting Tilcon's claim that the asphalt plant is part of the recycling operation and is also under state regulation. Cushing said the town would set limits on the hours the plant could operate, because asphalt plants usually operate at night, sending heavy trucks through the streets while residents are asleep.

Watson said that Tilcon wanted to keep the matter of night operations "on the table" with the town. The quarry said it did not intend to operate the asphalt plant 24 hours a day all the time, but added that "for some state jobs it is important to be able to operate in the night-time hours," and that the quarry might want to do that occasionally.

The town may also monitor the effect of the quarry's operations on groundwater, Cushing said. Additional studies are planned on the stability of the quarry's rock slopes and the dust generated by quarry trucks.

Judge Humphreys has ordered town and quarry representatives to work out any remaining disagreements by Jan. 13. A trial might have to be held to settle unresolved disputes, Cushing said.

Watson said that Tilcon was repairing fencing at the quarry this week, which the town had previously requested and was ready to "move forward to satisfy the requirements of the ordinance."

The borough is also studying whether it is possible to declare the quarry as a "site in need of redevelopment," which would allow the town or a developer to take over the land and end the quarry operations.