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EGG HARBOR CITY - Cedar Creek High School will open in September 2010, Greater Egg Harbor Regional High School District officials said, but they still are discussing who will attend.

The district's third high school might enroll only freshmen and sophomores when it first opens, but it also is possible that all high school grade levels will attend, according to Greater Egg Harbor Regional Superintendent Adam Pfeffer.

If the school opens with only freshmen and sophomores, those students may not be able to participate in varsity sports programs during their first years at the new school.

Pfeffer and other district administrators are compiling statistics on underclassmen who earn varsity letters and other information that will determine their ultimate decision. They could have more details to share as early as the next Board of Education meeting today.

Regardless of which grade levels attend, Cedar Creek students will come from Egg Harbor City, Mullica Township, Port Republic and Washington Township, Burlington County. Egg Harbor City students now go to Absegami High School with students from Galloway Township. Oakcrest High School students live in Port Republic and Mullica and Washington townships, as well as Hamilton Township.

"Everything is on the table," Pfeffer said Tuesday.

Until internal discussions have wrapped, Pfeffer would not comment further on the matter, including whether the district would phase in upperclassmen to Cedar Creek if it opens with only underclassmen attending.

State law does not allow students to play for a sports program unless they are enrolled at the host school.

Students at an underclassmen feeder school without its own sports program can play on teams at the receiving senior high school, according to New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Assistant Director Bob Baly.

During public discussions about Cedar Creek, Greater Egg officials never mentioned limiting enrollment and athletic programs at Cedar Creek to underclassmen but also never committed to a full high school and varsity sports there, Pfeffer said.

Officials have discussed for at least four years giving students from Galloway and Hamilton townships the option to attend a magnet program at Cedar Creek instead of going Absegami and Oakcrest high schools, respectively.

That's still part of the plan, Pfeffer said.

Voters approved a $27.4 million bond in 2007 to help construct Cedar Creek. The

$81.7 million project is expected to ease overcrowding at Absegami and Oakcrest.

In 2001, 3,227 students attended schools in the Greater Egg district; more than 4,000 are there now and nearly 4,300 are expected in 2010.

Construction on the new school started in March on 66 acres at Duerer Street and Hamburg Avenue in Egg Harbor City.

Workers already have a month to make up due to delays from recent rainstorms, Pfeffer said last Monday.

E-mail Emily Previti:

EPreviti@pressofac.com

1 comment:

• trizzle (0) posts 11:58 am

  these schools are NOT overcrowded and enrollment in galloway and hamilton schools are both decreasing. don't see how this project is justified in these times.

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