Voters
reject school funding measure
Blairstown Twp. school officials
hoped to fund expansion of elementary school.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 • By ANDREA
EILENBERGER • The Express-Times
BLAIRSTOWN TWP. -- Voters in Tuesday's
special election overwhelmingly rejected school officials'
request to help fund an $18.8 million school improvement
project, according to district Superintendent W. Michael
Feeney.
More than 1,000 residents voted against
the referendum asking them to shoulder a share of the cost
to renovate the elementary school and to build a new early
childhood primary school. With only 359 residents voting for
the project, disappointed school officials are sent back to
the drawing board.
"We went down big," Feeney said shortly
after receiving the results.
School officials said the upgrade was
desperately needed to accommodate the fast-growing student
population. Now, they'll have to re-examine their situation
and expenses to search for possible alternatives, Feeney
said.
"This board has been talking about it
since 2002," Feeney said. "There's an awful lot of
background work that has to go on before we get to this
point. It's not easy to get to this point, and naturally
we're disappointed."
Although he doesn't know the exact reason
voters rejected the project, Feeney thinks it just might not
have been the best time for the project.
"With the gas prices, and people's
discretionary income eroding and the hurricanes on the Gulf
Coast," residents are probably concerned about the federal
and state governments' budgets, he said.
He also said residents were probably
worried about the school tax increase the project would have
caused. District officials estimated residents living in a
home assessed at $100,000 would pay $195 more a year in
school taxes if voters approved the project.
Residents in Hardwick Township, the
sending district, would have seen an increase in tuition
bills for the 2006-07 school year. The amount was not
determined, but the increase would have been used to pay a
percentage of the bond's interest. Hardwick Township
residents did not vote Tuesday.
The state committed $2,944,085 toward the
project under the condition that residents approve the
referendum, and, with Tuesday's rejection, Feeney doesn't
expect to receive the funding. The grant would have come to
the district either in a lump sum paid after specific
construction benchmarks were met or in annual sums to help
with the district's debt service.
The money would have come from the
state's Schools Construction Corps.
The current elementary school serves 750
students from Blairstown and Hardwick townships in grades
first through sixth. Even with the four modular units
officials purchased in 2002, the school is 250 students over
capacity.
Under the improvement plans, students in
grades three to six would have been housed in the existing
elementary school, which would have undergone renovations to
the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting
systems. Doors and windows would have also been
replaced.
School officials planned to sell the four
modular units and the 75-year-old Vail School, which houses
the district's preschool program.
The early childhood primary school plan
called for a 54,000-square-foot facility for students in
preschool, kindergarten through second grades and
special-needs children. It would have accommodated up to 350
children with 18 classrooms, a gymnasium, cafeteria,
library/media center, community room, small-group
instruction rooms and offices.
"The board will meet and discuss this
vote and the options," Feeney said. "We need time to digest
our numbers."
Reporter Andrea Eilenberger can be reached at 908-475-8044
or by e-mail at aeilenberger@express-times.com.
© 2005 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
|