BY TOM CAIAZZA
Staff Writer
EDISON – The Board of Education was expected to vote on a resolution Monday night that would accept $17 million in debt service aid from the state to partially fund renovation projects on the town’s elementary and middle schools.
If approved by the board, the $79 million bond referendum will be put to public vote this April and will include the $17 million in debt service aid over a 20-year period, limiting the township’s part to $62 million.
Edison Township Schools Business Administrator Daniel Michaud said that the district attempted to get more money from the state, but given the current fiscal problems in Trenton, they were happy with the $17 million they got.
“There is no more money out there for grants,” Michaud said. “We were happy we got this.”
The debt service aid is paid out over the course of 20 years, so the board must bond for the full amount and receive the state’s portion in increments, Michaud said.
The effect to the average homeowner would remain a steady $81 per year for a house valued at just under $174,000, Michaud said.
“The impact will never go above $81,” Michaud said.
A similar bond referendum was defeated in 2005, but Michaud said that the district’s dire need for classrooms, its projected enrollment increases for the coming years and the low interest rates available at this time make it the best time for such a proposal to be approved.
Not to mention that the clock is ticking.
Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to make changes to the program that is offering Edison the debt service aid money in the coming months. Michaud said that for the district to guarantee a number like $17 million from the state, they would have to act now because there is no guarantee the money will be there in the future.
“We were told that with this whole funding thing that the governor’s trying to change,” Michaud said, “there is no guarantee that debt service aid will even be available after he changes whatever he is going to change.”
Michaud said that the district was advised by its bond counsel to go for the debt service aid now because if the money is not available, “that would be $17 million we would lose.”
If the bond referendum is defeated in April, Michaud said, there would be no guarantee that the money would be there the next time the bond referendum would be brought up again.
“There’s no guarantee that we would get $17 million again; we may get nothing, Michaud said. “That’s why we feel very strongly that this is the time to do it, while the money is committed from the state.”
The approval of the debt service would be a clear sign from the board to move ahead with the bond referendum, putting it on April’s ballot, Michaud said.
“At this point in time,” Michaud said, “everything that needs to be done to get on the ballot is done.”
The bond referendum would make renovations to schools in order to accommodate the 2,400 projected students who will be added to the Edison district over the next 10 years.
Some of the renovations include additions to John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson middle schools as well as to nine of the district’s elementary schools.
John Adams Middle School will receive additional classrooms as well as gymnasium and cafeteria additions.
Woodrow Wilson is expected to add 10 new classrooms, in a new wing of the school that would create a loop in the design and flow of the building.
According to Schools Superintendent Carol Toth, the renovations would essentially “max out” the capacity of the existing schools, meaning that there would be no more room for any of them to receive further additions in the future.
If approved, the project could be completed by January 2009, Michaud said.
Along with the construction referendum, the school board is considering another question on the ballot that would raise nearly $7 million for artificial turf fields at the middle and high schools. While the two referendums are separate, one is linked to the other.
Michaud said that if approved by the board, the question referring to the artificial turf would be worded in a way that if the renovations fail, the field would automatically fail as well. The field renovations cannot pass unless the renovations pass.
The board voted in December to pursue any state money for the field expansion and were told there was nothing for it at that time.
“We all know that we need this classroom space now,” Michaud said. “We are overcrowded as it is and we’ve got another 2,400 kids coming in the next 10 years. We don’t have anywhere to put them.”
The expansion is what we really need; the turfing would be nice if we can get it, if we can’t get it that’s OK,” Michaud said.
Michaud is confident that the board will approve the debt service aid figure, essentially confirming that the bond referendum will end up on the April ballot.
“The board is not going to turn their backs on $17 million,” Michaud said.