A New Jersey private school with more than three times the number of students it was allowed to enroll can stay open for now, town officials said after a tense hearing.
Al-Ghazaly Jr./Sr. High School — a private Islamic school in Fairfield in Essex County — enrolled 313 students even though it was only approved for 90, school officials told the township’s planning board this month.
A recent fire inspection found no immediate safety hazards that would require the school to close. But the township issued violations for exceeding enrollment limits, Fairfield officials said.
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“Accordingly, nothing in the fire safety code permits the Township to close the school on an emergency basis,” the township said in a statement earlier this month.
The school still needs planning board approval to increase its permitted enrollment. Its application to expand remains pending with the next hearing scheduled for Nov. 10.
Officials from the Islamic school and Fairfield officials did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
The controversy began when administrators from the Islamic Educational Foundation of New Jersey appeared before the board Oct. 13 to ask to raise the school’s enrollment limit from 90 to 400 students. They also asked the planning board to allow up to 46 teachers and staff in the school.
To the board’s surprise, Hayat Jaludi, the foundation’s executive director, said more than 300 students were already attending Al-Ghazaly.
“How can you have 314 students in a building when you’re only allowed to have 90?” a board member asked.
Jaludi said school leaders wanted to avoid disrupting students’ education during the move from their former campus in Wayne. The school moved into the Fairfield building in July and began classes Sept. 14, she said.
“We made the decision to try to run the school with that capacity of students and we’ve been successful so far,” Jaludi told the board.
She defended the decision, saying that, based on her experience as an educator, she believed the building’s classrooms could comfortably accommodate the students.
Board members pushed back, saying the school could not decide on its own to exceed the existing enrollment limit.
“You don’t have the jurisdiction to make that decision unilaterally,” one member said.
Others questioned how the enrollment discrepancy could affect emergency responders arriving at the school expecting 90 children rather than more than 300.
Jaludi apologized on behalf of the organization and said school leaders were trying to do what was best for students.
“We were definitely not reckless in our decision,” she said. “Again, we put the students at the center of our decision.”
Angry residents who spoke during the public comment section of the meeting questioned why the school had opened above its approved enrollment and whether it should be allowed to continue operating. Others described traffic backups and concerns about students crossing Passaic Avenue.
The township’s fire official inspected the school the next morning, Oct. 14, and found no imminent hazards requiring an immediate closure, officials said in a subsequent statement.
Although the school had more students than its approval allowed, the approximately 42,000-square-foot building on Passaic Avenue was designed to safely accommodate the number of current occupants, according to town officials.
However, the township issued the school violation notices and summonses for having more students than allowed and not following other conditions of the prior approval.
“This matter will proceed both administratively and before the municipal court,” the township said in a statement.
The 90-student limit dates to a 2019 approval for the previous school operated by the Essex County Educational Services Commission at the site, officials said. The Islamic Educational Foundation of New Jersey received permission earlier this year to open under those same limits.
Al-Ghazaly was founded in 1984 with 64 students. The school has graduated about 1,500 students.
Annual tuition is $8,590, according to the school’s website.
The foundation also operates Al-Hikmah Elementary School in Prospect Park. Jaludi described the Fairfield campus as a middle and high school serving sixth through 12th grades, with a college preparatory curriculum that includes English, mathematics, social studies, science and religious studies.
“Our school isn’t new to education,” she told the board. “We may be new to the township of Fairfield, but we have a 40-year legacy of academic excellence.”
After a video of the meeting circulated online, the township disabled comments on its YouTube recording, citing “insensitive and anti-Islamic statements” being viewed by a wide audience, including children who attend the school.
Officials said YouTube comments are not considered by the planning board when deciding the application.