Voters
defeat Warren Hills plan
They reject
$42.8M in school spending
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 • BY REBECCA SCHMOYER
• Star-Ledger Staff
Voters in the Warren Hills
Regional School District last night rejected a $42.8 million
referendum to improve and expand the high school and middle
school.
Residents of Franklin,
Mansfield, Washington Borough and Washington Township, the
four municipalities that comprise the district, turned down
the project by a measure of 1,267 to 1,021.
The project would have
cost taxpayers $29.8 million, which the district had planned
to pay for with a 22-year bond. State aid would have covered
about $13 million of the project.
School board member Mark
Blaszka said last night the results were not what the board
had hoped for, but he was encouraged by a 17 percent voter
turnout. Board member Nancy Fallen said the high school and
middle school are badly in need of additional classroom
space and that the district will have to find new solutions
to the problem.
"I guess we are going to
have to re-evaluate the situation. We're going to have to
meet and decide what to do next," Fallen said. "Originally,
we started talking about this in 2001 because of the
constant increase in student population. And it's not going
to go away."
At 1,390 students, the
high school is over-capacity by 260 students, and enrollment
is expected to increase to 1,548 by September 2007. With 775
enrolled at the start of this school year, the middle school
is 133 students over-capacity, surpassing projections for
September 2007.
At a public information
session last Thursday in Mansfield, district Superintendent
Peter Merluzzi said class sizes at both schools are three to
five students larger than the state average.
The rejected plan had
called for a 48,000-square-foot addition to the high school
that would include a cafeteria and auxiliary gym and a
7,400-square-foot wing at the middle school. It also called
for renovations to both buildings and a $6 million sports
complex featuring a multipurpose field, track and tennis
courts.
The district holds two
sessions of classes for freshmen at the Board of Education
office because of lack of space in the high school, Blaszka
said, but leasing trailers was not an option because of the
cost.
"We still have to deal
with the overcrowding. The problem is not going to go away,"
said Blaszka. "But trailers are very expensive. They are not
feasible. We would not want to go there, and taxpayers would
not want to go there either, because the cost for them in my
understanding, has gone through the roof."
Blaszka said the board
will consider what the district's next move should be when
it meets Oct. 5.
Copyright 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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