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While new Camden High is built, where will the kids go?

Officials are in the final stages of deciding where Camden High School students and teachers will move after the century-old building is demolished at the end of this school year, making way for a modern facility.

Officials are in the final stages of deciding where Camden High School students and teachers will move after the century-old building is demolished at the end of this school year, making way for a modern facility.

Construction of the new Camden High School, a $133 million project funded by the state Schools Development Authority, is expected to take four years. During that time, district officials are leaning toward temporarily relocating the school's 500-some students in the Forest Hill Elementary School building, next door to Camden High.

That move would displace the students at Forest Hill, School Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard said at this week's board meeting. In that scenario, Forest Hill students would temporarily move about a half-mile away to attend classes in the Hatch building, where Big Picture Learning Academy (formerly MetEast High School) is now housed.

Rouhanifard said he and members of his administration have sought feedback from students, parents, teachers, and community members in determining a solution. Most said that keeping the students together and in the Parkside neighborhood was a priority, something that isn't always been possible in other similar projects. While a new Trenton Central High School is built, for example, students are attending classes in four satellite schools.

Rouhanifard said that disrupting two schools was not ideal, but said there were limited options that would allow students to stay together and in the same neighborhood.

"Obviously this presents challenges to Forest Hill," he said.

Camden High principal Scott Shanklin said that as a Camden High graduate, he shared the emotional attachment that many community members have to the building known as the "Castle on the Hill."

"But it's time to give our students a 21st-century school," he said. "It's going to hurt a little bit at the beginning, but in the end that school is going to be a beacon for the whole community."

Other options for relocating the Camden High students are to move them into the Big Picture Learning Academy building. There, both schools and staff would share the space. The Forest Hill building, which currently holds about 300 students, would allow Camden High to operate without sharing the space with another school, Rouhanifard said. A third option would be to divide the students among several schools.

Several students at Forest Hill, which has kindergarten through fifth grade, spoke against the idea of relocating at Tuesday's meeting.

"This was not our fault, so why do we have to suffer and move?" asked Eniyah Bailey, 11.

Rouhanifard said he would host another family meeting to solicit more feedback. Brendan Lowe, a spokesman for the district, said a final decision will likely be made next month.

David Corvi, Forest Hill's principal, said temporarily moving his students was the best of the three scenarios presented by the district.

"I'm battling the struggle between being objective and seeing the long-term big picture with my personal feelings," he said. "And at the end of the day, Camden High is in need of a new facility. It will benefit the Parkside community."