Upper Freehold residents planning to vote “no” Dec. 14 had better think long and hard about the consequences of failing the proposed $39 million school referendum.
Opponents should look deeply within their hearts and ask themselves why they are really against the plan to build the school on Ellisdale Road, and make sure it isn’t purely a NIMBY (“not in my back yard”) answer.
We believe the Board of Education demonstrated a clear-cut reason to build a new school.
Schools in the Upper Freehold Regional School District are bursting at the seams, and are projected to be much more crowded by the time the proposed new middle school would open in 2007. The K-8 building currently provides education for more than 1,100 children; however, it was designed for 850 students. Projections suggest that in the next four years, there will be another 40-percent increase in enrollment.
The core facilities are already strained to the point where library visits are restricted to 10 minutes per week, down from 40 minutes a few years ago.
These children are coming, and they are required to be educated.
Voters have the power to determine whether that education will take place in the new school, or in temporarily placed trailers, estimated to cost the district more than $1 million.
In either case, taxpayers will have to pick up the tab.
While we understand that many residents either are on fixed incomes or have other financial constraints, building the new school should benefit the community as a whole by raising property values in the years to come.
We would also like to remind voters who dismiss the plan for economic reasons that there are other costs associated with defeating the project.
Besides the possible reduction in state school construction funding, building a school tomorrow will always cost more than building a school today, as neighboring Millstone found out when it was forced to cut $4 million from the school plan that voters just passed in March, following the referendum that failed last December.
A failure now will send school officials back to the drawing board, scratching their heads to figure out ways to shave off bits of the education they had spent countless hours planning so they can go before voters again in March.
In the meantime, they will be spending more time on brick-and-mortar issues than on curriculum.
As for the rumored notion that this new school would necessitate the vehemently opposed westerly bypass — it is ill-conceived.
The bypass was planned years ago to address the several hundred new homes on Ellisdale Road, where many of those opposed to both the roadway and the new school now reside.
Unlike a lot of municipalities, Upper Freehold has not continuously come to voters to build a new school every few years. We believe this district’s school officials have been good stewards with taxpayer funds.
This is the first new middle school for the rapidly growing district since the current elementary/middle school was originally built in 1924. The building was added onto twice.
The high school was built in 1964, and the renovations for that school are currently being completed.
The middle school is sorely needed, and the money is well worth it.
We urge all residents to support education and come out and vote for this plan on Dec. 14.
It is selfish for residents to put their own NIMBY wishes before the needs of the children.