back to school can be an exciting time for students and parents but in Patterson with just a little more than a week to go the feelings anything but hopeful late last month a ceiling collapse at Public School 3 caused the district to close the school and that's forcing kids into new unfamiliar schools in some cases far from home senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan takes a look at the funding challenges that have led to crumbling schools and overcrowded classrooms in Patterson it's been less than two weeks away from the opening of school and I mean it's a disaster Corey Teague says School parents are panicky after Patterson's PS3 shut down late last month a section of ceiling collapsed scattering chunks of plaster and raising safety issues for incoming staff and 300 plus students at the K-8 school Teague a former School Board member says kids from PS3 will now split up attending three different schools in the district three different overly crowded schools that's what I'm talking about we already have overly crowded schools It's like got 50 kids or 40 kids in the classroom so where are they going to put them by the time we you know narrowed it down we were comfortable with the schools that we chose because we re we're really looking to see which schools could accommodate those grade spans superintendent Lori Newell took this job in July she says some kids will gather at PS3 to be bused across town to Martin Luther King Elementary others will attend a couple of local schools within walking distance workmen today delivered boxes to pack up supplies at PS3 where repairs will take four to five months and cost more than two million dollars once the ceiling tile fell in you know then the asbestos issue is what obviously Rose to a great level of concern but we're also very concerned about the structural Integrity of the building overall PS3 is one of 17 Patterson Public Schools built more than a century ago the district's been trying to demolish this building since 19 160 when a Columbia University report warned about asbestos it's sad you know I shouldn't be able to see my school fall apart Linda Rodriguez remembers attending PS3 she complained at a recent public meeting called to deal with the crisis you guys should be able to do better to provide a better school for our students it's 124 years old we were slated to fix two classrooms this summer and also put in a a bathroom in that school we didn't expect um on the first floor that the ceilings would fall neglect is not what it is it's just age in the systems reaching their useful Life The District's facilities manager says they've spent nearly a half million dollars making repairs at PS3 over the past three years the district keeps pouring money into patching up old schools with funding from New Jersey schools Development Authority Patterson built two new ones in 2016 and is listed for a new high school but nine other substandard schools including PS3 Linger on Patterson's replacement list if we valued Patterson's children and children in the other poorest communities in New Jersey they would have been funded we would have given them adequate facilities a long time ago the district wants more State funding to keep up with repairs and build new schools but to bring PS3 up to Modern educational standards requires expansion more than double its current square footage the Main Street lots too small we really have to sit down and make a lot of really hard decisions about what we're going to do with school three the public will gather again for another hearing on the issue scheduled for August 29th at PS2 in Patterson I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news [Music]