By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — School district officials told the Planning Board last week that the cost to expand Sharon Elementary School and Pond Road Middle School is roughly $20 million less than a plan for a new school that failed two years ago.
Voters rejected a $39.6 million referendum in 2010 to build a new stand-alone elementary school and upgrade existing schools. Since that time, the overcrowding problem in grades K-8 has worsened — the district is 337 students over capacity — and the Board of Education now is preparing to return to voters with a new plan to build additions to Sharon and Pond instead of a new school.
”This is the culmination of several years worth of work to put forth another referendum to deal with our overcrowding and antiquated facilities,” Board of Education President Mike Reca said. “What we’re putting before you is our most cost-efficient method.”
The issue before the Planning Board on July 25 was limited only to whether the proposed project was consistent with the Master Plan, and the board unanimously agreed it was. Robbinsville residents will decide whether the project actually gets built when they vote in a special school referendum tentatively set for Dec. 11.
Schools Superintendent Steve Mayer said the expansion projects at both schools collectively would cost “in the $19 million range.” The plans would address the district’s overcrowding problem in grades kindergarten to eight and provide the space for the extra 355 students anticipated from new housing developments that already have township approvals, but have not yet broken ground.
When asked for the tax impact, Dr. Mayer said the preliminary estimates are the project to expand both schools would cost a home assessed at $400,000 about $200 a year more in school taxes.
There are no plans to expand Robbinsville High School, a newer building with an enrollment of 900 students.
Dr. Mayer emphasized the kindergarten to eighth grade overcrowding problem in his presentation to the Planning Board. There are 1,116 students in grades four to eight at Pond Road Middle School, whose core facilities (cafeteria, gymnasium, etc.) were designed for 800 students. Pond’s “instructional capacity” is 914, a figure that is calculated using a complicated state formula based on square footage and usage, he said.
The plan proposes converting part of Pond’s library/media center into five classrooms; expanding the cafeteria space in the front of the building, and moving the roughly 220 fourth-graders there back to Sharon Elementary School in order to reduce the future student population at Pond to about 900 to 950.
At Sharon School, a two-story addition with 24 classrooms and a full-size gymnasium would be added where the kindergarten playground now is located. The expansion would provide room for up to 638 new students, which would allow the fourth-graders to return to Sharon; eliminate modular classroom trailers that now serve 100 students at Sharon; return about 75 kindergartners now at the old Windsor School to Sharon; and accommodate the projected enrollment growth.
Some of the core facilities in the center of Sharon School, including the cafeteria space, date to the building’s original construction in 1950 when there were only 400 students in grades kindergarten to eight. The district plans to expand the cafeteria and kitchen at Sharon, renovate the entry way, update the HVAC and other mechanical equipment and configure a new parking and traffic pattern at the school.
Planning Board member Douglas Harris said he was glad to see the district was addressing the traffic flow at Sharon School. He called the current traffic lanes and diagonal parking behind the school “a horror show.”
Other board members also asked about the timetable for the project.
Dr. Mayer said if the referendum were approved in December, the conversion of part of the middle school library/media center space into classrooms could be ready by the time school opens in September 2013. The more involved construction project at the elementary school would be completed by September 2014, possibly as early at January 2014.
Planning Board members expressed concern there would be construction work going on at Sharon when school was in session. Mr. Reca said the district would tightly restrict which areas of the school the construction workers had access to, adding there would be “no crossover whatsoever.”
Dr. Mayer noted the district recently completed a roof replacement project at Sharon, and all construction workers had to wear uniform shirts and ID tags and did not come in direct contact with the children.
Planning Board member Janet Van Nest said some residents are questioning whether the expansion is necessary and wondering if enrollment soon will stop growing and level off in the not so distant future.
There are 2,883 students in Robbinsville public schools, and already approved housing projects “suggest we are going to level off at the 3,200 to 3,400 students range,” Dr. Mayer said. That projection does not include any “wildcards” such the approval of major new housing developments, he said.
”We haven’t seen any data to suggest that we might level off to where we are now or drop down,” Dr. Mayer told Ms. Van Nest.

