Sharon School addition expected to be done by September 2014
By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — Residents on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to spend $18.9 million to add a total 29 classrooms to the overcrowded elementary and middle schools, expand the two cafeterias and pay for other building upgrades.
With 30 percent of the township’s 8,433 registered voters going to the polls, the referendum passed by a vote of 1,529 to 1,042, according to preliminary voting machine figures released by Municipal Clerk Michele Seigfried on Tuesday night. The tally does not include mail-in or provisional ballots.
The estimated tax impact of the school projects is $48 per $100,000 in assessed valuation or $192 a year for a $400,000 home.
”We are thrilled to be able to move forward and thank the voters for understanding the district’s needs and supporting the referendum,” Schools Superintendent Steve Mayer said Tuesday night.
There are currently 2,900 students in the Robbinsville School District. The K-3 Sharon Elementary School and grade 4-8 Pond Road Middle School are collectively 334 students over their intended capacity. Expanding these two schools will solve current overcrowding and handle the projected enrollment increase of 334 students from previously approved housing developments that are not yet complete.
The lion’s share of the $18.9 million referendum provides funding for a two-story wing at Sharon School containing 24 new classrooms and a gym, which are expected to be ready by September 2014. The cafeteria at Sharon also will be expanded, and the oldest part of the building, which dates to 1954, will get new windows, floors and, for the first time, air conditioning.
Pond Road Middle School, which currently has 1,111 students, will get up to five new classrooms that will be constructed by September 2013 within the existing media center. The expansion of Pond’s cafeteria is expected to be done by September 2014.
The 24 new classrooms at Sharon, which now has 897 students, makes it possible to convert Sharon to a K-4 building in fall 2014 and reduce the number of children at the middle school. When the construction is done, the district no longer will need the five leased classroom trailers on the lawn at Sharon, and the three kindergarten classes at Windsor School can be relocated to Sharon School where the seven other kindergarten classes are.
The 103-year-old Windsor School requires renovations that are too costly so the district intends to sell that property and use the proceeds to pay down the bond debt. Only four rooms in Windsor School now are able to be used for students.
Two years ago, voters rejected a $39.6 million construction referendum to pay for a new K-5 building and make other facility improvements at the elementary and middle schools. By opting to expand existing facilities, instead of build a new one, the Board of Education was able to cut the cost of the 2012 referendum in half.
The referendum approved Tuesday does not include funds for Robbinsville High School, which opened in 2005 and is adequately sized to handle its current enrollment of 800 students.

