New Jersey special needs school announces move
A school for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities says it's moving to a new campus, a move that could reignite a town's debate over what to do with the current one.
Bancroft announced Tuesday that it plans to buy 80 acres in Mount Laurel. The move there from its current campus in Haddonfield is expected to take three to four years.
The organization recently announced that its headquarters would move to Cherry Hill and its outpatient neurological rehabilitation facility to Mount Laurel.
Residents and officials in well-off Haddonfield have been debating for years over how the nearly 20 acres there should be used if Bancroft would move. In 2013, voters rejected the school district's plan to buy the property to use for sports fields, open space and parking.
Local officials have since said they want Camden County's help to buy the land, but the purchase is not the county's top open-space priority.
In a statement Tuesday, Bancroft CEO Toni Pergolin said she hopes the governments will be able to buy the land, which is adjacent to a county park. But Pergolin said the school could sell to another entity.
"Ultimately, Bancroft will be obligated to sell the property to the highest bidder," she said, "whether such a buyer is a developer, a local government or municipality or an individual."
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