$46M school question to go before voters

By PETER ELACQUA
Staff Writer

The Marlboro K-8 School District Board of Education will ask voters to approve a $46,642,000 construction referendum on Election Day, Nov. 3.

If voters approve the question, part of the multimillion-dollar expenditure will be used to construct 28 classrooms at the David C. Abbott Early Learning Center and allow the district to move from a half-day kindergarten program to a full-day kindergarten program.

Board members discussed the scope of the referendum for months, and on Aug. 25, board President Michael Lilonsky, board Vice President Victoria Dean and board members Craig Marshall, Jian Kao, Joanne Liu-Rudel, Debbie Mattos and Robin Wolfe voted to place the referendum on the ballot.

Board member BonnieSue Rosenwald was not in attendance at the meeting. Board member Dara Enny arrived after the vote to place the referendum on the ballot.

In addition to paying for the additions at the early learning center, the money will pay for a significant amount of work needed throughout the district, according to the board. A report commissioned by the board indicated that much of the district’s aging infrastructure needs upgrading.

Administrators did not say what approval of the referendum would cost an individual Marlboro property owner.

The referendum will ask voters to approve an addition and renovations, alterations and improvements at the early learning center, and renovations, alterations and improvements at the Marlboro Middle School, the Frank Defino Central Elementary School, the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School, the Asher Holmes Elementary School, Marlboro Elementary School and the Robertsville Elementary School.

The district will issue bonds in the principal amount of $46,642,000, according to the referendum question.

According to the board, $20.34 million will fund work at the David C. Abbot Early Learning Center, including the construction of 28 classrooms, a cafeteria/gymnasium and a rehab of the common area.

Marlboro’s other schools will receive new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and fire alarms.

All of the schools, with the exception of the Dugan school, will receive a new boiler and new windows, and new electrical and temperature controls.

Robertsville, Marlboro Elementary, Defino Central and the Marlboro Middle School will receive new water heaters.

“All of the buildings in our district need work,” Lilonsky said. “We are taking a long-term, fiscally prudent approach to renovating each of our school buildings. The magnitude of these projects far exceeds what we could complete using general district operating funds. These upgrades and renovations will take the district into the foreseeable future at a minimal additional cost.”

The architectural firm of Fraytak Veisz Hopkins Duthie P.C. is the school district’s architect for the projects.

If the referendum is approved, the board will be required to submit plans for the projects to the Marlboro Planning Board and to the state Department of Environmental Protection for review and comment.