The mayor of New Jersey’s second-largest city has cast doubt on a long-planned STEM high school facility due to cost concerns and a local budget crisis.
Per Hudson County View, Jersey City Mayor James Solomon recently told the Riverview Neighborhood Association during a meeting that Liberty Science Center High School is unlikely to proceed. The project, located near Liberty Science Center, has not yet begun construction despite officials holding an indoor “groundbreaking” in 2023.
“There never was a plan to fund the high school,” Solomon reportedly told the crowd during the meeting. “High schools are expensive; they cost millions of dollars to run every year. And we are in a mass budget deficit. I don’t see a way the Liberty Science High School can move forward.”
Solomon added that it was not fiscally responsible for city taxpayers to pay $2 million a year to fund the school. Jersey City is currently facing a $250 million budget gap that has forced it to submit an unprecedented request for $150 million in state aid.
Hudson County approved $73 million in bonds to build Liberty Science High School late last year, but no construction has begun. The school is part of the larger SciTech Scity endeavor, which has been in the works for years at a property across from Liberty Science Center.
The plan was controversial back when it was first proposed in 2017. The City Council eventually approved a deal to sell the land to Liberty Science Center for $1 in March 2021, with then-Councilman James Solomon voting no on the deal.
The 500-unit Scholar’s Village component of SciTech Scity, now known as Aviva, is currently leasing their housing units. But a seven-story, 111,000-square-foot incubation space facility called Edge Works, which is also part of SciTech Scity, has seen little to no work performed despite also holding a groundbreaking ceremony in 2021.
Solomon stated during the recent meeting that the city will engage with Liberty Science Center regarding the site’s future.
