On Tuesday, Dec. 11, the voters of Tinton Falls will be asked to approve a $6 million referendum for additions to our middle school. Is this building project necessary and are we, the voters, being given all of the facts by the Board of Education?
This building project is not scheduled to be completed until September 2004 when an overwhelming majority of the federally connected students will be gone.
Couple that with the fact that the student enrollment rate for Tinton Falls residents is steadily declining. The student enrollment in September 2004 will be a minimum of 200-300 less than it is now.
The minor space problems that the district faces now will be gone by the time the building project is complete. Furthermore, if this project is completed at the middle school, we will have numerous empty classrooms in our other two schools.
We are still paying off the $25 million bond that built those classrooms. Do we want many of them to sit empty while we borrow even more money?
On top of this factual data, one has to wonder if our Board of Education is credible in its pleas to the voters to support this referendum.
In last year’s referendum, which was solidly rejected by the voters, the Board of Education passionately pleaded with voters to support its plan that included almost $2 million for work at the Swimming River School. The Board of Education said that this work was required to ensure "the safety and security of our children." Now, one year later, we have a new referendum on the table without any work scheduled to be done at the Swimming River School. Are our children in an unsafe and insecure situation, or was this work never required to begin with?
Additionally, our school board has blatantly wasted over $200,000 with its action to buy out the contract of former Superintendent Carol Moldan. Rather than let her finish this contract to its termination on June 30, 2002, the board released her and has hired an interim superintendent at a rate of approximately $700 per day.
So much for fiscal responsibility.
There is a school board meeting on Monday, Dec. 10. Attend and ask questions. Also check out the community Web site, www.tintonfallstoday.com, for updates on this issue and other issues affecting our borough. And on Dec. 11, vote no!
Richard E. Calvert
Tinton Falls