MONROE — Schools Superintendent Michael Kozak said the Board of Education and the administration will reassess after the $68.8 million referendum to build a new middle school was defeated by 143 votes last week.
“It’s a little too early to say which direction we will go in,” Kozak said on March 15. “We will look at where we lost and look at possibilities on what we could do different and get feedback from parents and community members.”
Some 3,244 residents came to the polls to vote against building a second middle school, while 3,101 residents voted in favor on March 13.
School officials said with the community’s school enrollment projected to exceed 2,000 students by 2023, the board proposed the construction of a three-story, 152,315-square-foot school for students in grades six through eight on a 35-acre parcel at the intersection of Applegarth and Cranbury Station roads.
The township is transferring ownership of the site to the school district, which district administrators said would be at no cost to the district.
The action would have enabled the board to divide the middle school population among two buildings.
The capacity of the existing middle school on Jamesburg-Perrineville Road is 1,259 students, but the enrollment was 1,663 as of Dec. 18. The district’s middle school enrollment is projected to increase to 2,072 students during the next five years, according to district administrators.
At the start of the 2018-19 school year, 10 portable trailer units will add eight classrooms and two auxiliary cardio laboratories for the middle school. The trailers will cost $1.5 million and will be included in the district’s 2018-19 budget.
“It was very disappointing to have lost the referendum vote especially since so many people spent so much of their time and effort in trying to get accurate information out to our community. I believe we need to take a step back and analyze the results of the election before we move on with a new recommendation to the residents of Monroe. In the meantime, the middle school core facilities will be stretched to its limits, more trailers will need to be utilized, and the growth of our student population will continue to rise. The defeat also means another year further out until any new school will be built and opened,” Board President Kathy Kolupanowich said.
Kozak said at the next board meeting on March 22, the focus will be on the 2018-19 preliminary budget.
“That will be a big part of the meeting,” he said.
Kozak said after the board and administration has time to reassess, they will consider future referendum dates.
“It will take a bit to gather and submit the necessary paperwork required to submit to the state for another referendum,” he said. “We will look at all our opportunities.”