The Freehold Borough K-8 School District Board of Education will meet tonight, Oct. 8, to discuss its options in the aftermath of a failed $32.9 million school construction referendum.
The meeting is open to the public and will take place at 7 p.m. in the Park Avenue Elementary School gymnasium.
The referendum put forth by the board on Sept. 30 was rejected by a vote of 374 “no” votes to 272 “yes” votes. Freehold Borough has 5,329 registered voters. A total of 646 residents voted on the referendum.
The proposed construction plan included the addition of classrooms and other improvements at the district’s three schools: the Park Avenue Elementary School, the Freehold Intermediate School and the Freehold Learning Center elementary school.
“Justification for the project relied on the statistics,” Superintendent of Schools Rocco Tomazic said. “By state standards, Freehold Borough has enough space for 1,148 students. However, the district currently has 1,622 students in-district and another 15 students placed out-of-district.
“The 474 excess in-district students represent a classroom shortage of 19 regular classrooms, not counting shortfalls in classrooms for small group instruction, inadequate gymnasium classroom space, cafeteria capacity and converted school libraries. The rental of six classrooms in the Freehold Township K-8 School District has only slightly mitigated the problem,” Tomazic said.
About 150 kindergarten pupils who live in Freehold Borough attend school in classrooms the district rents in Freehold Township. The Freehold Borough children are taught by teachers who are Freehold Borough employees.
“I regret that we did not convince a majority of voters of our critical need for additional instructional space,” Tomazic said. “We will redouble our efforts. We have a responsibility to find that majority so the needs of our students are addressed.”
According to Tomazic, at tonight’s meeting the board members will discuss options that include putting the same construction plan before voters in a referendum in December. If the board chooses that option and the referendum is rejected by voters, the board will retain the right to appeal to the state Department of Education to review the plan.
Board President Annette Jordan said the panel’s members were “disappointed” the referendum failed.
“But we will rebound,” she said. “We will get together and come up with a plan together. The building project cannot be ignored. We are at a crisis level now in Freehold Borough and we have to do something about it.”
Voters were presented with a $32.9 million ballot question seeking approval to issue bonds to support a combination of renovations and additions that would address most of the district’s space needs, according to Tomazic.
The entire project was eligible for 38 percent reimbursement under debt service aid from the state, according to district administrators. The owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $255,600 would have paid $278 more per year in his K-8 school taxes to fund the project.