The possible upcoming bond referendum was once again the hot topic of the Haddonfield Public School’s Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Oct. 8.
Board President Glenn Moramarco gave an update of the Long Range Planning Committee’s recommendations based on feedback from the other board members and the public at the last meeting on Oct. 1. No changes have been made as of yet, but the plan could still be altered before the referendum is finalized.
“We are continuing to look at other ways that we can maybe bring down the cost of the bond. But at this stage, there really is very little that we can consider, at least by us, a frill. It is going to building envelopes, structures and trying to keep the buildings functioning,” Moramarco said.
The district is going out for a bond referendum due to much-needed building exterior repairs, HVAC updates, special systems upgrades and accessibility and code compliance issues.
The proposed bond referendum given at the Oct. 1 meeting had a total estimated cost of $51.2 million and will be broken into three questions.
The Long Range Planning Committee used its time since the Oct. 1 meeting to try to cut costs and get rid of items it felt weren’t pertinent based on feedback from the board as well as the public.
The first suggestion was to drop the HMHS cafeteria expansion and HMS classroom renovations. That would drop the referendum by about $5 million. However, Moramarco wanted to make it known that the lack of classroom space will continue to be an issue in the future.
“(Classroom space) may be a problem down the line, but at this stage the price tag that is associated with adding the classroom space and the cafeteria expansion, we’re not sure it is justified. Though again, we are not solving that problem, it is not necessarily going away,” Moramarco said.
The committee’s suggestion for Question 2 instead is for new air conditioning. According to Moramarco, Question 1 HVAC upgrades will still include repairing the broken air conditioning systems in classrooms; upgrading the electrical systems for classrooms without air conditioning to be ready for units to be put in; and installing air conditioning in the Central/Middle School cafeteria. However, they are taking out new air conditioning to be put in Question 2, which Moramarco estimated to be about $2 million, though they haven’t priced it just yet.
“We want to make sure the classrooms are at least ready for air conditioners, so that if the money is raised by PTAs or some other source, we will have the capacity to air condition those rooms,” Moramarco said.
The Long Range Planning Committee also wanted to let the board and public know that it was not inclined to add any additional security features, despite security being brought up at the last meeting. According to Moramarco, the new PA systems, communication systems and new additions to key fobs would be substantial enough.
“The steps that we have already taken, with the addition of things that Dr. Perry said he was planning on doing, would be sufficient, and we didn’t feel the need to add anything to the referendum,” Moramarco said.
The committee is still looking into the high school cafeteria repairs. Previously, the board was thinking of having the cafeteria restored with slight improvement, but it believes it might be cheaper for the district to demolish it and build it from scratch.
“Our belief is, and we’re probably going to have to see what the figures show, that even if we got no state aid, we could rebuild the cafeteria from scratch cheaper than what it would cost to fix it … We may be able to save a substantial amount of money just by rebuilding it rather than restoring it,” Moramarco said.
The school is still working with a price estimator to see whether some of the figures the district has for the referendum can be verified.
“I’m glad that the committee went back to look at the referendum and hopefully it will come back even lower once we have the cost estimates,” board member Dennis Kelleher said.
According to Business Administrator Christopher Oberg, the independent cost analysis is supposed to come back by Oct. 16. The district also has an appointment with the Department of Education to go over the ideas and numbers.
Oberg suggested the Long Range Planning Committee meet this week to look over the numbers and try to get into a position to bring its new suggestions to the board at the regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 22.
He said a decision does not need to be made that night, however, if the district wants to go out for a January referendum, a vote needs to be made close to Oct. 22.
“If we go much further than that, the difficulty will be if we will be able to meet the timeline that we have to follow to be able to have the January referendum. If we can’t, then that means we have to push back to March, which in all probability would mean that we wouldn’t’ be able to hit the ground running until the following summer,” Oberg said.
For a full video of the Oct. 8 BOE meeting, visit the Haddonfield Civic Association’s Vimeo account at vimeo.com/user2961532.
