FILE PHOTO Sharon Lydon, of Corona Road in East Brunswick, stands in her backyard in front of the newly expanded Lawrence Brook School. EAST BRUNSWICK - A neighbor of the newly expanded Lawrence Brook School last week implored the Board of Education to make improvements behind her house that she says were promised over a year ago.

Sharon and Tim Lydon, of Corona Road, have been fighting to get the same improvements along their rear yard that a neighboring homeowner received from the school district. Those included evergreens and a brick retaining wall. The Lydons contend that school officials met with the school neighbors in 2006 and made it appear that they would receive such amenities to replace the large trees being removed from school property behind their homes.

"I am deeply saddened and disappointed with how we have been treated," Sharon Lydon told the school board Dec. 20. "We would like to receive what we were promised to us at the community meeting, the plans at the school display, and what was generously given to our neighbors … We would like the wall and dense collection of evergreens and the damage in our house taken care of."

School officials contend that no such promise was made, particularly with regard to the retaining wall. They said it was made clear that, if funds remained from the school expansion project, the district would look to do further improvements for the neighbors, but there is no money left.

"When we met with them, we talked about having to see what [money] was left, and that the appropriate trees and shrubs would be put in," said Trish LaDuca, coordinator of community relations and programs for the district. She agreed that a retaining wall was shown to neighbors last year, but that it was not shown to stretch all the way across the Lydons' property.

Frustrating the Lydons further is that their next-door neighbors received "generous" amenities and they did not. The district built a retaining wall along the back of their neighbor's property, but it only goes a short distance along the Lydons' rear property line.

"If you notice, the wall stops abruptly a quarter of the way behind the property of our home," Sharon Lydon told the board. "In addition, we have full view of an industrial drainage basin and the parking lot."

She said the construction project has caused drainage problems on her yard, and ultimately has reduced the property value.

Several of the Lydons' neighbors came out to last week's meeting as a show of support, though Sharon Lydon was the only one to address the board.

Joan Lynch, also a Corona Road resident, told Greater Media Newspapers that it looks "like a desert" behind the Lydons' home as opposed to the previous swath of large trees. She said the district has left eyesores such as the parking lot, enclosed garbage area and drainage basin in plain view.

During the meeting, Lydon complained that she has received a runaround from the district, and presented a log of unreturned phone calls and meetings that produced no substantial results.

Lydon, whose husband is an attorney, told the Sentinel they have not hired an attorney in the matter, but she will continue to fight for the wall and trees that were originally discussed.

She also wants to be reimbursed for damage that she said is related to the school construction. She said heavy equipment used in construction of the parking lot caused the house to shake, resulting in cracks in the sheet rock and foundation.

School Business Administrator Bernardo Giuliana has said that issue is the responsibility of the contractor's insurance carrier, and he said he has tried to help move that process along toward a resolution.

Board of Education members did not respond to Lydon's comments at the meeting, but had their director of support services, Sean Gately, speak when Lydon was finished.

Gately said the district will be planting another 27 tress, each 8 feet in height, behind the Lydons' home within a month. District officials said they have already planted 18 bushes and trees along the edge of the school parking lot, and the additional plantings will make for a total of 45.

Lydon said she is not satisfied with that plan, and she wants the brick retaining wall extended. She said the wall is needed "to ameliorate a host of concerns, which include safety, liability, trespassing and the potential for water, gasoline, garbage and other pollutants to run off from the elevated ground behind our backyard."

Giuliana, who has met with the Lydons at their home, has said that the district does not have money to pay for the wall and the fill that would be necessary to support it.

LaDuca said that at this point planting the trees is "the extent of what we can do."

"We've always been very responsive to the neighbors," she said, referring to homeowners who live next to schools that have been expanded. "And we've tried to do what we could, within the budget, and what needed to be done."

The neighbors who showed up at the meeting, all senior citizens, said the Lydons have been a big help to them since moving to the quiet road, and they fear that they will move if the district does not remedy the problems.