By Ada Gupta | September 18, 2025
One year ago, taxpayers of Montgomery Township and Rocky Hill were denied access to Montgomery High School’s tennis courts.
What began as a dispute over access has since evolved into a lingering dilemma. While there have been efforts on both sides – township officials and school district administrator – to resolve the matter, taxpayers are still questioning whether there has been any substantial progress.
The sign at Montgomery High School says: “These courts are closed to the public!!!” This includes the citizens who pay high taxes to the school, and for the courts. It appeared on the locked gates a year ago after a minor vandalism incident.
The high school’s tennis team relies on the courts as essential training grounds – however, they are also “members of the public” who are locked out of the courts along with citizens who want to continue to enjoy the courts for leisure. Students and their families are forced to practice or play at a subpar court at Woodsedge Park in the township, or at the two crowded courts at the Upper Middle School
Or, residents and student athletes must pay to play out of town, or at a privately-owned club.
School officials say they locked the MHS courts after someone vandalized them. The tennis team had to seek alternate accommodations in 2024 in order to fulfill their practice time.
Shortly thereafter, the courts were closed outside of school hours in order to prevent further vandalism and to maintain the courts, school officials said.
Families of the school team players and citizens attended meetings and made the township and school district aware of the issue regarding the courts.
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Currently, the high school courts remain inaccessible to the community.
Riya Sarangi, a tennis player for the Montgomery girls tennis team, voiced her concerns on the state of the courts to The Montgomery News.
“There is room for improvements on all the courts, including the high school and middle school courts,” Sarangi said.
“There are multiple dead spots and cracks throughout all of the courts and many of the nets have holes. While they are usable, I believe there’s significant room for improvement.
“If I can’t find a good court to play on, it makes it harder to stay consistent and play.”
These problems are clearly a reality, but it begs the questions as to the purpose of local property taxes. Residents pay high taxes to both the township and especially to the school district, and it seems reasonable to assume that the public could use all tennis courts in town. Some tax money surely is put towards keeping all the courts in proper form.
When school administrators asked Township Committee to pay a fee for citizens to use the school’s courts, it raised the issue of “double taxation.” (Local property owners fund the schools and its facilities already.)
In an interview with The Montgomery News, Mayor Neena Singh said “it is the norm.”
“Yes, they [residents] are getting taxed and that is something they have to bring up at a school board meeting. We care about our taxpayers, and that’s why we’ve been fighting this fight to reopen the courts.”
The “fight” that Mayor Singh is referring to is the back-and-forth between the township authorities and the school officials. While the recreational department in the township definitely has some authority in the matter, the MHS courts are ultimately the schools’ property, and they will be the ones with the final say.
John Groeger, the Parks & Recreation Director for Montgomery, explains: “Since it is the school district’s property, we as the township don’t necessarily have the ability to open up the (high school) courts — especially since we don’t have an existing agreement with the schools, unfortunately.”
But the resolution to the problem isn’t easy to reach on the schools’ side either. They say their main concern is vandalism, and keeping a safe environment for students.
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Mayor Singh has outlined her efforts to resolve this issue, saying “we have offered [to] work on a grant and get some cameras and maybe figure out why the vandalism happened. I wish we had known when that happened and that the schools had reached out to the town about collaborating on this matter.”
In the end, it does come down to taking initiative on both sides of the cause.
It is not just Montgomery that has had these difficulties; many other towns and school districts have had to work past vandalism issues on public property. Yet, there has been success in other community models of managing tennis courts for residents.
Montgomery will hopefully find a form of management that satisfies all parties involved.
For now, it is just a matter of whose court the ball is in.
