Voters approve plan
to build high school
Board can now
apply to build school
in Thompson Park
BY TARA PETERSEN
Staff Writer

FARRAH MAFFAI staff Margaux Petersen, 7, (above) leaves the voting booth with her father Chris after he cast his vote at the Brookside School Tuesday. At left, Yvonne Zirrith holds her 18-month-old son, Jackson, as she signs in to vote in Tuesday’s referendum.

Monroe residents turned out in large numbers Tuesday to approve the construction of a new high school in Thompson Park.

The controversial $83 million building referendum was approved by a vote of 5,258 to 3,185. Nearly 36 percent of the township’s registered voters participated in the election.

The plan calls for a high school with a capacity for 1,800 students to be built on a 35-acre section of the county-owned park, across School House Road from the current high school, which will become a middle school.

Township and school officials who had gathered at the senior center Tuesday night to learn the results of the election received the news from Board of Education President Joseph Homoki.

TARA PETERSEN At far left, Mayor Richard Pucci addresses those gathered at the Monroe Township Senior Center Tuesday night as Board of Education President Joseph Homoki and Superintendent of Schools Ralph P. Ferrie (right) look on.

"I not only have good results, I have outstanding results," Homoki said just before announcing the numbers to a crowd of cheering supporters.

"I’m so ecstatic. It’s so wonderful to see the whole town pull together for the kids," board member Kathy Leonard said.

"It’s an early Christmas present for Monroe," board Vice President Kathy Kolupanowich said.

The successful referendum comes more than a year after township voters defeated a previous, more expensive plan to build a high school on Applegarth Road. The September 2002 referendum was defeated in all of the senior communities’ polling places, though it was favored in other township voting locations. Overall, that plan was defeated 5,510 to 3,744.

This time, after an exhaustive campaign by school officials who made stops to discuss the building plan in all of the retirement communities, most of the seniors voted yes.

The Clearbrook development, whose residents last year defeated the more comprehensive $113 million plan by a vote of 1,225 to 248, passed this one 525 to 320. The majority of voters in the Rossmoor, Concordia and Ponds communities also supported the plan Tuesday.

The only polling places where the referendum was defeated were Greenbriar at Whittingham, whose voters came out against the plan 650 to 577, and at the Monroe Township Library, where the vote was 159 against and 131 in support.

Additionally, voters who cast 323 absentee ballots in the election were against the plan by a 2 to 1 margin.

The numbers were more favorable at the Woodland and Brookside schools, where voters showed support by a margin of more than 3 to 1.

Woodland had 683 yes votes and just 183 against. Brookside’s results were 802 to 232 in support of the plan.

"Obviously we’re pleased," said Superintendent of Schools Ralph Ferrie. "Now it’s time to move forward and roll up our sleeves."

The township will offer a 77-acre wooded property to the east of the park in exchange for taking the 35 acres through a land exchange application to the state Green Acres program.

This plan, officials said, offers savings of $24 million over last year’s $113 million plan. The new plan does not involve the purchase of land, and calls for a downsized version of the original high school plan. Also, athletic fields can be shared with the existing high school. Last year’s referendum also called for renovations at three existing schools, which the current plan does not.

At the polls Tuesday, resident Nancy Gonzales said she voted yes and was "all for it."

"Everyone I know is for it. We are all keeping our fingers crossed," she said.

Voter Ted Rippa said Tuesday he did not support the plan because he felt the township should place more limits on development rather than to keep building more houses, and hence, more schools.

"They have to control the growth in the town. They let all this building go on, and then they need more roads, more firemen, more schools and more money," Rippa said.

Doug and Suzanne Keenan said they voted in favor of the referendum but were split in terms of their support for the Thompson Park location.

"I voted for the school, but I wish they’d have had a two-part vote, because I don’t like it being on parkland," Doug Keenan said.

"I don’t mind it being in the park. They are getting that other land in return," Suzanne Keenan said.

Park Savers member Nancy Prohaska, perhaps the most outspoken critic of building in the park, said she was disappointed that the plan passed by such a margin.

Park Savers has contended that the board is unlikely to get approval for the land swap, and that the costs for the current plans will be much higher than most residents realize due to many hidden costs.

Prohaska said that the board will have an uphill battle when it attempts to swap the 77-acre parcel for the acreage needed to build the school.

"It’s not over. I’m not sure the public will support the ramifications that will follow with the land exchange," Prohaska said yesterday.

She said she thought the park location would be legally challenged.

"Right now all they have is money. They don’t have a place to put the school," she added. "You can’t build a school in mid-air."

School Business Administrator Wayne Holliday said taxpayers will see about a 4-cent tax increase per $100 of assessed valuation as a result of the bond referendum. On a home assessed at $150,000, taxes will go up by $57.55.

Officials have said they have not yet decided how they will pay for renovations necessary at the existing high school and middle school, as well as one elementary school.