Fort Lee Mayor, Councilman To Support Board of Ed’s $30 Million Referendum

The Fort Lee Board of Education and school administrators invited the Fort Lee Mayor and Council to take a tour of some of the district’s schools Friday so they could get a firsthand look at the infrastructure and overcrowding issues plaguing the district and in the hope of getting the borough’s governing body to come out in full support of the board’s $30.2 million referendum for which voters will cast their ballots in January.

School board president Arthur Levine, Superintendent Raymond Bandlow and others from the administration and school board led Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and Councilman Jan Goldberg on a tour of facilities at , and , highlighting antiquated boilers along the way, severely outdated science labs, overcrowded lunchrooms and hallways, storage space converted into classrooms, locker room showers and hallways serving as storage space, crumbling masonry at the high school and even a music class taking place at the end of a middle school hallway, among other problems.

“The purpose [of the tour], even though we’re not building new facilities per se, is we’re going to give you a sense of the overcrowding that exists,” Levine told Sokolich and Goldberg at the outset Friday. “And [Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds Jack Denichilo], along with some of our other members, will point out our ailing infrastructure, which is what this referendum is designed to overcome.”

The school district contingent also provided the borough’s governing body with a detailed look at the referendum and statistics showing the extent to which the entire school system is over capacity—35 percent at School No. 1, 26 percent at School No. 2, 40 percent at School No. 3, 30 percent at School no. 4, a whopping 88 percent at the middle school and 74 percent at the high school, according to capacity numbers determined by the state Department of Education versus actual enrollment at each school.

“We’re not growing fast, but we’re growing,” Bandlow said. “It’s not a new problem; it’s a 20-year problem. Twenty years ago, the enrollment was 2,957. It’s now about 700 more than that. That doesn’t sound like a lot, except that we were overcrowded 20 years ago. [That] was when the board went for a referendum the first time, and it was turned down. Nothing happened from then until last year when we went back to the voters for referendums twice. There was not a single attempt to build a single new classroom in Fort Lee, and enrollment continued to [increase].”

But the latest $30 million referendum—about $10 million of which would come from state grant funding—does not address overcrowding for the most part. Instead, it includes extensive renovations across all six Fort Lee schools and expansion of the middle school, which would result in a gain of just eight new classrooms.  

In addition to the expansion at Lewis F. Cole, the referendum also includes heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades at Fort Lee High School, the middle school and Schools No. 1 and 4; masonry repairs at the high school and Schools No. 3 and 4; roof replacement at the middle school and Schools No. 1 and 4; window replacement at the high school and Schools No. 1 and 3 and science room upgrades at the high school and middle school—all things that members of the school board see as absolute necessary repairs within a budget they believe the public will accept.

“This referendum is two-thirds infrastructure, and one-third for some educational improvements and some classrooms,” Bandlow said. “The addition [at the middle school] does improve the livability even though it only adds eight classrooms.”

The tax impact to homeowners would be an additional $123 a year for those with homes valued at $500,000, school officials estimate.

Levine pointed out that those costs don’t take into account the potential savings in operating costs, noting, for example, that new boilers specifically, along with many of the other infrastructure upgrades, would “slow down the increase in costs in future years.”

“So there’s great value in doing this,” Levine told Sokolich and Goldberg. “I really would like to have your vocal support. We need to get this done. Otherwise $10 million will be lost. And there’s plenty of other districts that will be more than happy to have it.”

Even before taking the tour, Sokolich, who made it clear that he was "speaking for Mark Sokolich" and not necessarily for the rest of the members of the Borough Council, said that during last year’s referendums, “there was a tacit agreement that we would go along with this and assist,” but he also noted that nobody was “out there on a soap box” lobbying in support. This time, he said, he’s taking a slightly different approach.

“I give you my word that I will be your poster child for this if you want me to,” Sokolich said. “I will do whatever you want me to do. I will announce it at meetings. When I’m out and about, I do plan on asking people for their support, whether it’s Chamber of Commerce, or what have you, because I think it’s a great plan, and let’s do it at this point. That’s my position.”

Bandlow said he thought it was important for the mayor to get a firsthand look so that he could “vouch for the needs.”

“What’s really nice is that they came today, when school’s in session, because you can really see it,” Bandlow said later.

Speaking after the tour, Goldberg too seemed convinced, saying, “The schools are in disrepair, and people have to understand that they have to get fixed.”

“Because if these schools don’t get fixed and there’s a catastrophic accident, they’ll be building a new school before they know it; they won’t have to wait for a referendum,” Goldberg said. “These things have to be kept up to date. People also have to understand that when the schools are good, property values go up. They may not want to hear that, but that’s the truth. That’s the first thing they ask the real estate agent: how are the schools? The second thing is, how is the library? The library’s great. The schools have to be fixed.”

Asked what the Mayor and Council can do to help the board get the referendum passed, Goldberg said, “I have no problem telling people what I saw. It doesn’t seem like they’re going overboard in what they have to fix. Everything that we saw has to be fixed.”

“The kids are going to feel better, and they’re going to do better because they’re surroundings [will improve], so this has to get done,” Goldberg said, adding, “You can’t hold this board, and this superintendent, and this administration responsible for things that should probably have been done over a period of time. They’re stuck with the problem, they’re addressing it, and they’re going to fix it. And they need the public to get on board.”

Councilman Michael Sargenti, who was not part of the tour, later said he too supports the referendum.

Levine said he appreciated the pledge of support.

“There’s no cheaper insurance than a good school system,” he added. “And regardless of your age, in other competing communities—go to Ridgewood, go to Tenafly, go to Demarest—there’s a source of community pride in the schools, whether you’re going there or not … if you improve the schools, you will attract people who want to stay. And your Main Street will get filled in with stores that service those families that come and stay. Right now, Fort Lee is a bit of a ‘revolving door’ community.”