Voters to decide fate of $18.9 million project on Dec. 11
By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — With less than two weeks to go before voters cast ballots, school district leaders made their case Monday night for an $18.9 million referendum that would add 29 classrooms to two overcrowded schools.
About 75 residents attended the meeting at Sharon Elementary School, the second and final public information session hosted by the district to answer questions about the project that, if approved on Dec. 11, would increase school taxes for the average assessed home by about $192 a year, or $16 a month.
Two years ago, Robbinsville voters defeated a $39.6 million referendum to pay for a new K-5 school building for 750 students on district-owned land near Pond Road Middle School, forcing the school board to find a less costly alternative. The new $18.9 million proposal would add space to existing buildings for about 638 students and is about half the cost of failed 2010 referendum.
”We heard the community loud and clear … and we were able to come back to the community with a project that is $20 million less and still meets the need,” Schools Superintendent Steve Mayer told the gathering. “Is it ideal? No, but certainly we’re proud that it meets the need and will position us to stabilize in the future.”
There are currently about 2,900 students in the Robbinsville School District. The proposed expansions would eliminate overcrowding at the K-8 buildings that are now 334 students over capacity and help accommodate expected enrollment growth of 335 additional students in the next few years from housing projects that have township approvals, but have not yet been completed.
The plans are for a two-story 24-classroom addition and other upgrades to the K-3 Sharon School, which now has 897 students under the age of 8 and is 137 students (18 percent) over its intended capacity. An additional five new classrooms would be added at Pond Road Middle School, a grade 4-8 building with 1,111 students that is now 197 students (22 percent) over its intended capacity.
The 24 new classrooms at Sharon would eliminate the need for the five leased classroom trailers now on the lawn at Sharon, return the fourth-graders to Sharon School, thereby freeing up classroom space at Pond Road Middle School; and keep all 10 kindergarten classes under one roof at Sharon. Due to overcrowding, three kindergarten classes are now housed across town in the 103-year-old Windsor School.
The referendum will also pay for the expansion of the cafeterias at both Pond and Sharon, a new gym at Sharon and other facility improvements at Sharon where parts of the building, and its mechanical equipment, are 54 years old.
”These projects will help us with our current reality as well as planning for our future,” Dr. Mayer said.
School district officials on Monday night had props, a PowerPoint and souvenir paper lunch bags for attendees containing literature, buttons, magnets and referendum literature. Most people in the audience that spoke, however, did not appear to need persuading.
About a dozen people got up to speak in favor of the referendum and those with questions were friendly — unlike the first meeting when there were a few critics in attendance distributing anti-referendum fliers.
The question that got the most reaction from both the audience and school district officials came from 17-year-old Claire Speranza, a Robbinsville High School student who wanted to know how the district responds to residents disinclined to support the referendum because their children are in high school or college and therefore not going to directly benefit from K-8 projects.
Supporters of the referendum made pitches designed to appeal to both the hearts and wallets of the type of voter that Claire described.
Mayor Dave Fried, who was at Monday’s meeting, noted that people contemplating downsizing and selling their homes because their children are grown still have a financial interest in maintaining a good public school system. Most buyers of single-family homes have young children, and they’re not going to buy in a town where K-8 children are taught in modular trailers and hallways.
”If we don’t invest in our schools, we’re going to have a hard time selling our houses,” Mayor Fried told the gathering.
Others members of the audience began to chat with Claire about the Virginia Tech sweatshirt she was wearing and noted that RHS students have quality college opportunities because voters approved the high school construction referendum nearly a decade ago that has provided students with a top-notch education.
Debra Baer, of Banbury Court, ticked off a list of items that property taxes pay for, such as the public schools, the parks and the senior center.
”Taxes pay for all the things the whole community uses,” Ms. Baer said. “It’s a civics lesson really. That’s what we do in America. We all support each other and we want the betterment of the whole group.”
School district officials said that if the referendum fails, it will be forced to lease additional trailers for Sharon School to house the growing student population and noted that the state requires lease payments to come out of the district’s operating budget, which will mean cuts to other school programs.
Moreover, the current third-grade class will not physically fit inside Pond Road Middle School next year, so if the five classrooms for Pond aren’t approved and built this summer, those students will be split between Sharon and Pond.
”We can’t wait anymore,” Board of Education President Mike Reca said. “That’s the bottom line; we just can’t wait anymore.”
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 11. The deadline for requesting a vote-by-mail ballot is Tuesday, Dec. 4. Information about the referendum, including a five-minute YouTube video, can be found on the school district’s website www.robbinsville.k12.nj.us.

