A settlement with an insurance company over the fire that burned down James Monroe Elementary School in March 2014 puts the district on track for a new school next September.
The Edison Board of Education recently voted to approve plans to settle the lawsuit it had filed against the New Jersey Schools Insurance Group (NJSIG), and now the district will receive $23.6 million for the rebuilding — an increase from the initial offer of $9 million from NJSIG.
A February estimate from the district put the replacement cost at $28 million. According to district information, NJSIG fought the district on paying for elements the new school would require based on code upgrades and regulations for building the new school. Those changes mean the school, which had been 40,000 square feet, would jump to 67,700 square feet. The increased settlement means the district will not have to borrow to rebuild James Monroe, which was built in 1963 and at the time of the fire, had an attendance of 483 students.
Based on the original NJSIG settlement amount, taxpayers — who approved bonding for the project earlier this year — would have paid an average of $21 annually over the course of 30 years for rebuilding.
Superintendent Richard O’Malley said the settlement does not impact the district’s recently announced plans to become debtfree by 2020.
“The plan stays the same,” he said. “We knew all along the insurance company would pay for the complete construction of James Monroe School, so it was excluded from the beginning,” he said. O’Malley said he is happy with the outcome. “We are pleased that the insurance company honored our insurance agreement,” O’Malley said. “It is too bad that we had to move the proceeding to court, but overall we received fair compensation for our loss, and we now can continue to move forward with a September 2016 opening for the new James Monroe School.”
The fire has been determined to be the result of custodian Jerome Higgins’ improperly discarded cigarette. No one was hurt in the incident.
The school district has a $350 million policy in property insurance and $50 million in what it calls “extra expense insurance.”
Displaced James Monroe students have been attending classes at the former St. Cecilia School in the Iselin section of Woodbridge through a two-year deal between the Edison school district, Woodbridge Township and the Diocese of Metuchen.
Work on the new school began in May.