District
asking $42.8M question
Bonds would
fund school renovations
Sunday, September 26, 2004 • BY REBECCA SCHMOYER •
Star-Ledger Staff
Residents in Warren Hills
Regional School District's four sending communities will
vote Tuesday on a $42.8 million referendum to expand and
renovate the high school and middle school.
Franklin, Mansfield,
Washington Borough and Washington Township will decide if
the district will move ahead with a proposal to expand the
high school by 48,000 square feet; add a 7,400-square-foot,
two-story wing to the middle school; renovate both schools;
and build a new football field and track.
The project would cost
taxpayers $29.8 million, which the district would bond for
over 22 years. The state would contribute about $13 million,
which represents 50 percent of the cost of the proposed
renovations and 23 percent of new construction.
With both schools
currently strapped for classroom space and classes in grades
7 through 12 exceeding the state's average size, school
board Vice President William Miller said he hopes voters
will give the plan a green light.
"We are using 100 percent
of our room capacity," said Miller. "We can't add electives
because we have nowhere to put them. We're not going to be
as good a school if we cannot get some additional
space."
Miller said the district
is being squeezed to its limits by the "trickle-up effect,"
as pupils graduate into the middle school and high school
from Franklin, Mansfield and Washington Borough -- which
have all expanded their elementary schools in the past two
years.
If the referendum fails,
the district may be forced to house some students in
trailers, which could cost as much as $100,000 per unit and
are not covered by state aid, Miller said.
District Superintendent
Peter Merluzzi said overcrowding has made it necessary to
juggle students' schedules and hold classes in rooms not
designed for academic use.
"We're at a crisis in
terms of space," Merluzzi told residents at a meeting to
discuss the proposal that was held in Mansfield
Thursday.
With 1,390 students
enrolled, the high school is over capacity by 260 students
and the district anticipates the number of students will
climb to 1,548 by the start of the 2007-08 school
year.
The middle school is now
over capacity by 133 students. With a current enrollment of
775, it has surpassed demographic projections for September
2007, when 748 were expected to be enrolled, said
Merluzzi.
If the measure is
approved, the district's high school on Jackson Valley Road
would receive a $32.5 million overhaul providing a new
600-seat cafeteria and an auxiliary gym with separate sports
training facilities and renovations that would include the
creation of nine classrooms, an expanded media center, four
art studios, a science lab and a business education
classroom.
Merluzzi said a $6 million
sports field and track would be built on property across the
street to replace the schools' substandard football field
and unusable track.
At the middle school,
seven instruction areas would be renovated and four new
classrooms added.
But residents and local
officials also worry about the tax impact of the
measure.
Mansfield Mayor Cate
Oakely said she would like to see school officials eliminate
the fields from the proposal, and build them later.
Education is more important than the sports facilities, and
they shouldn't be spending on that right now, she
said,
"It's a Catch-22 in my
opinion. You need the expansion, because our kids need a
bigger facility," Oakely said. "However, it's really costly
and we pay a large amount of taxes to the school from
Mansfield now. It's a strain on our seniors. We have a lot
of residents who are moving out of the town because of the
taxes."
Board member James Momary
said he felt the district should consider holding two
separate referendums, one for the high school and another
for the middle school.
"Why not have the option
to vote separately on these issues?" Momary
asked.
However, Merluzzi stressed
the two schools are in desperate need of new space, and it
would not be possible to rank one as a higher priority than
the other.
The local tax impact per
year on a 22-year bond would be as follows: Taxpayers in
Franklin Township would pay an additional $49 per $100,000
of assessed value; taxpayers in Mansfield Township would pay
an additional $67 per $100,000; taxpayers in Washington
Borough would pay an additional $71 per $100,000; and
taxpayers in Washington Township would pay another $68 per
$100,000.
Rebecca Schmoyer can be reached at
rschmoyer@starledger.com or (908) 475-1218.
Copyright 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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