Voters OK $106.1M for E. Bruns. schools
Work at two elementary schools, middle school approved by 2-1 margin
BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

Voters in East Brunswick showed overwhelming support Tuesday for a $106.1 million project that will see most of the district’s middle school replaced and add space onto two elementary schools.

Residents supported the referendum 3,752 to 1,886, including absentee ballots, a margin that pleasantly surprised even some Board of Education members.

Though East Brunswick school referendums have had mixed success over the past 10 years, this one — which officials have said will be followed by another bond vote in 2006 — was favored by a 2-1 margin, with nearly 19 percent of registered voters participating.

“This was really a giant leap,” board President Michael Baker said. “People realized this wasn’t about the next five years; it was about the next 50 years.”

The referendum asked East Brunswick taxpayers to fork over $81.4 million for a new Hammarskjold Middle School building and expansions and improvements at the Central and Lawrence Brook elementary schools. The state will pitch in $24.7 million for the project.

School officials have stressed that the current facilities are old and do not function well enough to meet modern standards. In addition to outdated infrastructure such as heating and electrical systems, the district’s K-7 schools are considered overcrowded, and in many cases students are being sent to schools other than those they should be attending due to high enrollment.

Officials said this project will reduce class sizes, increase Hammarskjold’s capacity to 1,700 students — the school, whose current capacity is 692, has 1,532 students enrolled at present — and eliminate the need for classroom trailers, which have been used at the middle school for four years.

Officials have said that the Hammarskjold school’s 1996 addition will remain intact while the rest of the school, built in 1961, is razed and replaced.

Though Baker said he had been confident the referendum would be approved, it could not be known just how much of the community would support it.

“The mandate today was larger than I expected,” he said.

“I knew the community would come through,” said Superintendent of Schools Jo Ann Magistro. “I’m really overwhelmed by the margin it passed by, though.”

Baker recalled past school referendums that failed — the district saw two defeated at the polls in 1994 and 1995 — and said he felt this election’s success was the result of a number of factors, including the fact that officials reached out to the community, involving the public in the decision-making process and offering tours of the schools in question, for example. This vote also marked the first time school board meetings were televised while the board prepared for the project. Magistro gave regular presentations related to the referendum at the start of each board meeting in recent months.

“People saw this was a real need,” Baker said.

“It was a collaborative effort, which meant all constituencies were reached,” he said. “We didn’t leave any stones unturned. We provided an enormous amount of information.”

Magistro agreed, attributing the overwhelming support to the fact that the district opened its doors to show residents the conditions in the schools.

“A big plus was getting the community involved,” the superintendent said. “They asked intelligent questions. They really came around and said this is what we need for the kids.”

The district also stressed that the tax impact would not be as harsh as some might fear, and that if the project was not undertaken now it would only cost more later on. And district officials had every intention of getting the work done, one way or another.

“We would have come out again” if the referendum was defeated, Magistro said. “It had to be done.”

If defeated twice, the board would have had to take other steps to get the work done, she said. However, the more time that elapsed, the more likely it would be for construction costs and interest rates to be higher. The same level of state aid also might not be available in the future.

The cost to the taxpayer related to this referendum, as outlined by the school district, will be $45 in 2006; $74 in 2007; $131 in 2008 and $140 in 2009.

The school board expects to present another referendum, likely in the fall of 2006. This plan carries a cost of about $54 million, with the state again picking up a share of that sum. That project is expected to provide additions and renovations at the other six elementary schools in East Brunswick.

Baker could not say that as a result of this vote he is now more comfortable about getting the next one passed, noting that outside factors such as a downturn in the economy can always change how voters feel.

The board president said it is estimated the work approved Tuesday will take five to seven years to complete, and construction from the second referendum would take another two to three years after that.

The board will in the coming months prepare to solicit bids for this first project. It is hoped that construction will begin in six months to a year, Baker said.

“I think the community has made a statement that education is a priority here,” Magistro said.