Parents rally to keep PLC open BY DANIELLE MEDINA Correspondent DANIELLE MEDINA The raw weather last Friday didn't deter a small group of parents and children from attending a rally to protest the closing of Primary Learning Center on Chambers Bridge Road. BRICK TOWNSHIP - The Board of Education's recent decision to narrow its $3.5M budget deficit by closing the Primary Learning Center left about a dozen parents and their children standing in the school's parking lot last Friday outraged and wondering why. Undaunted by the weather that closed Brick's schools, a group of protesters rallied at the PLC carrying signs that read, "Don't put our kids on the chopping block" and "Shame on you." "The bottom line is the school board let us down," said Valerie Truisi, a mother of twins in kindergarten at the school and the rally's organizer. "Last year, we voted for middle school sports and security systems. If we would have known then, we would have voted to keep schools open." Board of Education members decided at the Feb. 12 board meeting to shut down the PLC on Chambers Bridge Road and the Laurelton School on Route 88 at the end of the school year. The moves would save roughly $900,000 and $25,000, respectively. The board chose the option of closing the PLC and the Laurelton School instead of an even more controversial plan that would have shuttered the Herbertsville and Osbornville elementary schools. Many parents at the rally believed the board caved to public pressure from parents at Herbertsville and Osbornville and took the "safer" option of closing the PLC. "No school should be closed," said resident Susan Skowronski, who is "devastated" that her son won't attend kindergarten at the PLC next year. "It's a shame that the town has been put in the dark about this school budget for years." Skowronski said she is concerned that her young son will have to ride the school bus next year with much older kids. She also questioned why the PLC is being closed when the district is anticipating higher kindergarten attendance in the 2008-09 school year. "Why don't they hold registration next week to see how many kids will be in kindergarten next year," she said. "Then we'll have the exact numbers." Parent Bobbi Hernandez, the mother of two sons who attended the PLC and who now go to Midstreams Elementary School, said the Board of Education should have already found alternative funding for the district. "I'm in favor of advertising on buses and naming rights to schools," she said. "If these things had been brought out in the last two years, we would not be here today." Hernandez was also concerned about the impact that the PLC closing will have on the all of the district's elementary schools. PLC parents asked interim SuperintendentMelindoA. Persi for more time, Hernandez said. "Persi said there is no time," Hernandez said. "The PLC did not have a chance to fight for the reasons to stay open. It was thrown under the bus." With its wide hallways and kid-size bathrooms, the PLC was considered a state-of-the-art facility when it opened 12 years ago and has been a model in education for other districts around the state. "The PLC is a wonderful school," said Truisi. "Twelve years ago, the board put this school up with the vision of the teachers. It gives kids a good start. I feel every Brick child should start here." Students from the district's seven elementary schools currently attend kindergarten at the PLC, divided into classrooms according to their "home" schools. The PLC also houses the district's preschool disabled program. This fall, kindergartners and preschool children who would have gone to the PLC will now go to the schools in their respective neighborhoods. Students from the Laurelton School will attend classes at the PLC and the Laurelton School will be sold.