By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
MARLBORO – The Marlboro K-8 School District Board of Education has changed the date of a referendum that will ask voters to approve $26.3 million worth of capital improvements across the district.
At an April 26 meeting, the board passed a resolution that canceled a special election that had been scheduled for Sept. 27. Board members voted 9-0 to move the referendum to the date of the general election, Nov. 8. Doing so will save money by holding the referendum on a day when residents were already slated to head to the polls to vote for president, county freeholders and school board members, according to district administrators.
According to the proposal for the capital improvements, $6.16 million would be allocated for work at the Marlboro Middle School; $3.93 million would be allocated for work at the Frank Defino Central Elementary School; $2.61 million would be allocated for work at the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School; $4.9 million would be allocated for work at the Asher Holmes Elementary School; $4.73 million would be allocated for work at the Marlboro Elementary School; and $3.97 million would be allocated for work at the Robertsville Elementary School.
Administrators said the district would receive 40 percent of the total cost in state debt service aid. The scope of the project is expected to include windows, fire alarm systems, temperature control panels, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, electrical boards, feeders, boilers, pumps, switchboards and electric generators.
According to Business Administrator Cindy Barr-Rague, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $465,000 currently pays $305 per year toward the school district’s debt. That payment is expected to remain the same until 2020. If the referendum being proposed is approved, then in 2021, the owner of a home assessed at the township average will begin paying $92 per year toward the district’s debt – a savings of $213 from the current debt payment portion of the school tax bill.