Schools

School Officials Urge Voters to Approve $30.2M School Bond Referendum

The first of three community forums on the referendum was Monday at the community center; Fort Lee Mayor and Council members voice their support

Slightly more than a dozen people, including some members of the Borough Council and Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, turned up Monday at the for the first of three public forums on the Fort Lee Board of Education’s upcoming $30.2 million school bond referendum.

School board president Arthur Levine, who was joined by board vice president Linda McCue, board member Charlie Luppino, Acting Superintendent of Schools Steven Engravalle and Business Administrator Cheryl Balletto, said that after a brief presentation, questions would be limited to those pertaining directly to the referendum.

Engravalle went through a presentation detailing the work—school-by-school—taxpayers’ dollars would pay for if the referendum passes on Jan. 24:

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  • – HVAC system upgrades, roof replacement and window replacement at a total cost of about $3.2 million, with nearly $1.3 million coming from the state
  • – Window replacement, masonry repair and repainting at a total cost of $915,000, $366,000 of which would come in the form of state aid
  • – Masonry wall repair and repainting, HVAC system upgrades, electrical service upgrades and roof replacement at a total cost of slightly more than $5 million, of which about $2 million would come from the state
  • – Science lab renovations, HVAC system upgrades, roof replacement, masonry wall repair and repainting at a total cost of about $6.7 million, with roughly $2.7 million coming in the form of state aid
  • – Media center, classroom and entry addition adding 15,250 square feet (including five new classrooms), classroom and music classroom renovations (a total of six renovated classrooms), HVAC system upgrades and roof replacement and at a total cost of a little more than $14.3 million, with $3.4 million from the state

If the referendum passes, the school district would receive $9,775,611 in state aid—or about 33 percent of the overall cost of the project. The local share would be $20,430,466, and the tax impact would be an estimated $103 a year on an “average assessed home” valued at $468,436.

Attorney Lisa A. Gorab, the district’s bond counsel, said there are three “financial advantages to doing this right now.”

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“Your numbers for this bond referendum we ran at 4.5 percent for a 25-year debt, which is actually very low,” Gorab said. “The truth is that the bonds would actually sell today for about 4 percent so it would even be lower.”

Gorab added, “Your $9.8 million that’s coming from the state expires in February so you are one of the last districts—if not the last district—that has a grant left to get.”

“You were awarded the grant, and the state said if you don’t get voter approval by February of 2012, that money goes back to other districts that have applications pending,” she said. “All projects getting approved right now, none of them have [state] aid.”

The third advantage, Gorab said, is that “we are seeing projects coming in under-budget.”

“If we have not sold the bonds by the point that we’ve bid the project, then we don’t sell all the bonds,” she said. “Then we sell only what we need. And if the bonds have been sold then at that point, the money goes back to the taxpayer as debt relief. The board can’t then decide to do something else with another one of the schools.”

Sokolich and Councilmen Jan Goldberg and Harvey Sohmer, all of whom have taken tours of Fort Lee schools to get a firsthand look at their physical condition, reiterated their support for the referendum.

Saying that he recognizes “the financial constraints everybody’s under these days,” Sokolich said, “I think the district needs a lot of help.”

“There’s one sure-fire way of undermining either the affluence or the benefits that a community offers, and that would be to neglect the school system, especially these types of capital improvement projects,” Sokolich said. “I was relatively silent on the two larger referenda, and quite frankly, to a certain extent, I regret that. [They were] maybe a little bit too much to swallow at that particular time. I think this is a much smaller referendum. I think this is something that we and the district absolutely, positively need, based on my own personal observations.”

Goldberg, who serves as Council liaison to the pointed out that he and Sohmer, the Council liaison to the , see alerts from time-to-time of smoke conditions at Fort Lee schools.

“And the smoke conditions, from what I’m told, is the boilers backing up,” Goldberg said. “It’s counterproductive to start talking about whose fault it is, and why wasn’t it done. It doesn’t matter. The problem is now; the problem has to be fixed.”

Sohmer agreed, saying that he is a graduate of Fort Lee High School and a product of the Fort Lee School system himself.

“And I’m going to tell you, things look the same as when I went to school,” Sohmer said. “Nothing’s changed. The boilers are the same. Everything’s the same. It’s not good for the children in the system. Shame on us that we didn’t do it, but it’s too late to point the fingers on who did it or who didn’t do it. We’ve just got to get it done.”

But not everyone in the small audience gathered at the community center Monday evening were in full agreement with those sentiments, especially when it comes to the burden on taxpayers.

Fort Lee resident Tom Bennett, who said he too is a graduate of Fort Lee High School and, in fact, once served on the school board, suggested fixing the schools one at a time, a couple million dollars at a go.

“You always ask for the big amount of money, and that shocks everybody, including me,” Bennett said, addressing the school officials. “Homeowners cannot afford to fix their own homes, and now you’re asking for $30 million to fix the schools.”

Levine countered that, “we’re hopeful [the referendum passes this time] because our children need it.”

“You mentioned the fact of doing one school, but what about the fact of having $9.7 million in state aid,” he said. “Are you willing to do away with that? We can’t do it piecemeal; we would lose that state aid.”

Levine added that spreading it out over 25 years is “the most economical way.”

But Bennett was undeterred, pointing out that, “there are a lot of senior citizens in Fort Lee on fixed incomes.”

“Asking us now to pay $100 a year for 25 years is $2,500,” he said. “That’s coming out of somebody’s Social Security. I want you to think twice about what you’re doing.”

Levine said school officials are “mindful of every dollar” and “recognize the difficult economic circumstances” of the times.

“But we need to get this done,” he said. “There is no greater insurance than having strong schools for your real estate values. And most importantly, our kids need it. We need to keep them competitive. They don’t have the years anymore to wait. We’ve put it off for long enough. There has been virtually nothing done; now’s the time.”

Levine encouraged people to attend one of the remaining public walking tours the school district is offering, which he said are being held at staggered times to accommodate as many people’s schedules as possible.

Those tours, which meet at the at 255 Whiteman St., will be offered on the following dates and times:

  • Wed., Dec. 14, at 11 a.m.
  • Wed., Jan. 4, at 11 a.m.
  • Wed., Jan. 18, at 7 p.m.

Engravalle said people who can’t make one of those times but would still like a tour should contact the school district office, and special arrangements can be made.

The school board will hold two more public forums at the community center before the Jan. 24, 2012 special election—one on Tues., Jan. 3, 2012, at 7 p.m. and one on Tues., Jan 17, 2012, at 7 p.m.


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