OCEANPORT—The Oceanport Board of Education has decided to delay an $18 million referendum to fund a new school building until March as new options are under consideration.
Jay Coffey, vice president of the Oceanport Board of Education, said the board has decided to push back the Dec. 8 referendum, which, if passed, would fund the demolition and rebuilding of the Wolf Hill School, as new options including sites at Fort Monmouth and Maria Gatta Park are being discussed.
“We are going to putting it off until March,” Coffey said. “Once we started getting it out there that we were going for a bond referendum, other options became available.
“Fort Monmouth became more of a player, options became available there and really what our superintendent wanted was a K-through-eight facility on one site. The economies of scale make it cheaper to do it that way and neither Wolf Hill or Maple Place has the footprint to do that.”
Coffey, who will leave the board in December and take over as borough mayor, said another option available could coincide with the borough’s plan to rebuild the municipal complex.
“The mayor and council said, what if we gave you the property at Maria Gatta Park, build a K-through-eight there, sell Wolf Hill and turn Maple Place into our municipal center,” he said.
Coffey, who won election this month to become the mayor, said both the park and fort proposals have some negatives, including making it less likely for students to walk to school and the park’s proximity to Monmouth Park racetrack.
He also said the board is considering approximately five options, all of which would cost more than $32 million, 40 percent of which would be offset by the state.
Coffey said the original discussions for a referendum scheduled for December centered on whether to rehab the current Wolf Hill School for an estimated $12 million local contribution or to demolish the school and build a new one for an estimated $18 million local contribution with the remaining 40 percent funded by the state.
“Looking at the cost-benefit analysis, if you are going to rehab a building like that for $12 million, you might as well spend the $18 million and have a brand new building,” he said.
Coffey said another option discussed was switching the grade levels for Wolf Hill and Maple Place.
“The older grades need science labs and more modern facilities than the younger grades,” he said.
According to Coffey, the board has discussed options for Wolf Hill School for a number of years.
“There have been talks for so long about Wolf Hill School and renovating or knocking down and building new,” he said. “But no one ever moved on it.”
He said the main problem is the age of Wolf Hill School.
“It’s the decrepitude of Wolf Hill, it’s a hodge-podge building, there have been several additions to the building over the years,” Coffey said. “The physical size of the classrooms is antiquated.
“The oldest part of the building is built so well that you can’t utilize modern technology, Wi-Fi doesn’t work as well, and you can’t bring in air conditioning.”
He said the district must look at updating the facilities.
“For too long we had our heads in the sand and we just haven’t dealt with this,” Coffey said.
He said the district also plans on doing a better job in the coming months of educating the public about the value of approving the referendum.
The district currently operates two schools and educates students from Oceanport and Sea Bright.