funding greater share of school construction
Revised referendum
cuts tax increase
State commits to
funding greater share of school construction
By VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer
Spotswood school officials said this week that the new school construction referendum being sent to voters in September will cost about $15.9 million.
The cost represents a decrease of about $3.5 million from the construction package defeated by voters in a December referendum. Voters rejected that proposal 974 to 499.
The new, scaled-back referendum would raise the annual school taxes on a home assessed at the borough average of about $70,000 by roughly $295, according to Board of Education President Frank Kardashian. The increase would be approximately $25 per month for that homeowner, he noted. The district would pay off the construction costs over a 20-year period.
Based on current education requirements and projected enrollment increases, the district figures the added facilities would meet its needs for a period of about 10 to 15 years, he said. He explained that that assumes the state does not come up with any "radical changes" in curricular requirements and that the district does not experience an unanticipated enrollment bubble.
The project calls for major additions at the high school, the Memorial and Schoenly schools, with minor improvements at the Appleby School.
The amount taxpayers would be responsible for raising would be about $10.5 million, he said, as the district was able to secure more state aid funding for this referendum than it was able to secure for the 2001 proposal. While the district would have received about $4.9 million in state aid, had the first referendum been accepted by residents, Kardashian said the state is now pledging $5.4 million, which represents about 30 percent of the total cost.
The board president said the first referendum had some aspects that were not eligible for state aid, so district officials changed the project so as to fit state aid criteria.
"For state aid, we did some redesigning in some of the areas that were not eligible for aid (the first time)," he said.
The district also asked the state to reconsider enrollment projections. Kardashian said the state officials made errors in calculating the applicable aid for the previous referendum, but this time apparently realized the extent to which the district’s student enrollment is projected to grow.
"We also asked them to take a look at enrollment projections where we felt they didn’t use the correct projection numbers the last time," he said. "That allows you to get more money from the state."
In order to reduce the cost from last year’s $19.4 million to $15.9 million, officials cut out the idea of building a new auditorium at Spotswood High School. That cut saved about $3.2 million, Kardashian said.
In addition, the board eliminated the idea of creating an auxiliary gymnasium at the high school, he said. However, the district has planned to increase the number of new classrooms at the high school.
"Those were the big changes," he said. "The rest was nickel and dime stuff."
The revised costs involved in the referendum include approximately $418,000 for improvements at the Appleby School (presently for grades 2-6); $3,351,000 for work at Schoenly School (kindergarten and first grade); $5,614,000 for work at Memorial School (grades 7-8); and $6,581,000 at the high school.
The previous referendum would have raised taxes on the average home by about $400 — about $105 more per homeowner than the new package.
The district will be changing the configuration of its schools by moving the sixth grade from Appleby to Memorial, he said. That move will save the board from having to build additional classrooms at Appleby.
The board and administration have said for more than a year that the district desperately needs more space. It currently enrolls about 1,650 students, but projects that number to grow to about 2,000 in the next five years.
"The need (for this) is primarily because we don’t have adequate classroom space," he said.
Helmetta sends all of its students to Spotswood’s schools, while Milltown sends only its high school students to Spotswood. Kardashian said that there are currently about 250 students from each town in Spotswood’s schools, though the total number is expected to jump from about 500 to approximately 700.
There are approximately 1,100 students who live in Spotswood attending the schools, and that number is expected to increase to approximately 1,300, he said.
The referendum is scheduled for Sept. 24.