Narrow margin enough to OK 2 schools By bob fleming C
In what school district administrators termed a heavy voter turnout, — 4,934 ballots cast, representing 24 percent of Marlboro’s registered voters, the proposed $42 million building plan was approved by a vote of 2,649 in favor to 2,611 opposed on March 14.
"Our prekindergarten through eighth-grade students have been traveling through a dark tunnel of crowded schools and classrooms for over three years. The Board of Education carefully drafted a proposal to provide light and hope at the end of the tunnel," said Superintendent of Schools Dr. David Abbott. "I can now say there is light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to all who contributed their time and energy to bring about a solution, the successful passage of the referendum."
School officials presented voters with a building proposal that called for the construction of the district’s second middle school, on 27 acres on Nolan Road at a projected cost of $34.1 million, and an early childhood learning center on 10 acres at the intersection of Harbor and Tennent roads, at a cost of $7.8 million.
The board is in the process of condemning the land for the middle school by exercising its power of eminent domain. The land for the early childhood learning center has been donated to the school district by a local developer.
According to Abbott, the district’s current middle school on Route 520 and the new middle school will be configured to house all of the district’s sixth- through eighth-grade students. The Nolan Road middle school is expected to open in September 2002.
The early childhood learning center will house all of the district’s preschool and kindergarten students in two daily sessions, as well as some students with special needs, when it opens in September 2001, Abbott said.
Board members and school administrators encountered resistance from some residents who objected to the site for the proposed new middle school, citing environmental, traffic and safety concerns with the Nolan Road location.
According to board President Carol Majonis, an environmental study of the property was conducted by a professional consultant who determined the land is suitable to be developed for a school use.
Majonis said the board received a copy of a traffic report from the Marlboro Police Department concerning the intersection of Nolan and Lloyd roads near the proposed middle school site and was satisfied that traffic and safety concerns will be adequately addressed in the facility’s site plan and related traffic flow design.
"I always knew that in the end the voters of Marlboro would do the right thing," Majonis said shortly after receiving the referendum results. "This is a victory for the children, the parents, the staff and administration. Marlboro will be a much better place because we passed this referendum."
According to Abbott, the voters who said yes to the board’s plan realized the school district had to address the current overcrowding conditions in all of the elementary schools and adequately plan for continued growth in student enrollment for the foreseeable future.
"Renewed and revitalized, we can pursue an aggressive schedule that will culminate in the construction of these two much-needed schools," Abbott said. "Working on the design, financial and state approval tasks, we move ahead confident that the residents of Marlboro supported the cause of education for township children when it truly mattered."
He added, "To those who felt they could not support this referendum, I hold out an olive branch. Education has been and continues to be the driving force behind all that the board and administration do. Together we can make a difference, and that difference is a high quality education for every child in this school district."