There’s been so much development in Edison, the board of education says it’s planning to sue the township for what it’s called an “overcrowding crisis” in local schools.

Enrollment at Edison’s public schools has grown in the past decade. In the past three years, the school gained approximately 1,300 students, including 268 this year, enrollment data from the school district shows.

Ten years ago, the school district served 13,897 kids, but enrollment for the 2018-19 school year is up to 16,807, and Board of Education President Jerry Shi said the district hasn’t been able to implement a full-day kindergarten program for years because there just aren’t enough classrooms.

“We are at a point where we have no choice,” Shi said of the planned lawsuit. “We need to educate kids, but it’s too much a burden for the district. This is a last resort. We want to work with the township.”

No lawsuit has been filed yet, but the school board voted in an April meeting to authorize its attorney, Ramon Rivera, to file one. Rivera has not returned a request for comment.

Mayor Thomas Lankey said the township can’t comment on the upcoming lawsuit.

“Based on what we have heard, this lawsuit borders on frivolous," Lankey said in a statement to NJ Advance Media. "But, we would need to actually see it before we can address any specific issues.”

The board’s lawsuit announcement comes on the heels of the town zoning board’s April approval of a new eight-unit apartment building at Harding Avenue and Oak Tree Road. Prior to that, the zoning board had also approved construction for seven single family homes on another part of Harding Avenue, as well as other housing units around town on Oak Tree Road and Tamagnini Court.

In March, the school board also appointed an architectural firm to plan the expansion of six schools in the district.

Though town council members have acknowledged that overcrowding is a valid concern, some fear the lawsuit is a political attack.

“This frivolous lawsuit is nothing more than a political assault aimed at Zoning Board attorney Bhavini Shah, who is now a Democratic Township Council candidate," Edison Councilman Len Sendelsky said. “Attorney ethics rules prevent Ms. Shah from commenting about this lawsuit. But, it is clear this misguided lawsuit was engineered for political reasons.”

Edison has more than 100,000 residents.

In past cases about schools and development, boards haven’t always been successful. In a 1961 Superior Court case, a judge ruled that Madison Township (present-day Old Bridge) had no right to turn down a building project “merely because its school system would be unable to absorb the increase of students, or that it would increase taxes.”

The decision also found that the town could not compel a developer to pay for a school as a condition of project approval.

Board of Education at-large member Richard Brescher said the lawsuit is far from a waste of money.

“It’s worth the money if we can curb the overdevelopment,” Brescher said. “That’s less money to build and spend on schools. You won’t find one person who wouldn’t tell you the schools are overcrowded.”

Brescher said he has proposed an impact fee through which developers would provide financial support to expand district schools, but the township council would ultimately have to decide on it.

“It really is a crisis,” he added. “If you go to any of our schools, you’ll see our students and teachers struggling from the lack of space. It impacts the work environment for teachers and impedes our students’ ability to learn.”

School boards and municipalities need to communicate about community planning to avoid conflicts over capacity, Frank Belluscio, communications director at the New Jersey School Boards Association, said.

“It’s essential that there be communication between municipal government and school districts about the impact of development on school enrollment and educational services,” Belluscio said.

“Both the school district and municipality have limited resources—state aid is limited, local revenue growth is constrained by the tax-levy cap, and property taxpayers are often overburdened.”

Gianluca D’Elia may be reached at gdelia@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @gianluca_delia.

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