Voters should say yes

to Marlboro school plan

O

n March 14, Marlboro residents should vote to approve the Board of Education’s plan to build an early childhood learning center and a second middle school.

Nobody, not even those who oppose the board’s plan, denies the fact that Marlboro’s K-8 school district is undergoing a significant increase in enrollment that experts project will continue in the next several years.

With portable classrooms already in use at all of the district’s elementary schools, it is obvious there is not enough room in the current facilities to educate all of Marlboro’s youngsters comfortably. If there were enough room, there wouldn’t be a need for trailers because no educator would choose to use such a facility if he didn’t have to.

The board’s plan to build two schools addresses several issues.

One, the middle school proposed for Nolan Road will give Marlboro a school in the northern section of the community. A significant amount of construction has occurred in this area in the past several years. With the construction of this school, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders will be able to attend a school closer to their homes.

The construction of a second middle school will allow administrators to move sixth-graders out of the elementary schools, freeing some classroom space in those buildings.

In conjunction with the board’s proposal to build an early childhood learning center at Har-bor and Tennent roads, kindergartners will be removed from the elementary schools, thereby freeing additional space for first- through fifth-grade classes.

At $42 million, the construction will not be inexpensive. The board estimates that the owner of a home assessed at $250,000 will pay between $280 and $299 annually, probably for a period of 20 years, until the bonds are paid off.

That figure does not include the school district’s operating budget, which is also likely to in-crease on an annual basis.

Given New Jersey’s reliance on property taxes to fund the operation of our schools and the construction of new facilities, this is the system under which the Marlboro board must operate.