East board representative Julia Langmuir’s report focused mostly on student’s opinions regarding the biggest issues at Cherry Hill East and their connection with the Dec. 11 bond referendum.
At the final Cherry Hill Board of Education meeting prior to the district’s bond referendum on Dec. 11, a Cherry Hill high school student talked about what the student body is thinking about the upcoming special election.
Cherry Hill High School East board representative Julia Langmuir gave a report at last Tuesday’s board of education meeting to reveal the results of a survey she and her fellow East board representative, Craig Robinson, recently conducted among the student body regarding important issues at their high school. Langmuir’s report focused mainly on students’ thoughts regarding the bond referendum and the projects included within it.
Langmuir noted many of the projects students felt their school was most in need of are included in the first question of the three-question referendum. According to the survey, 30 percent of students said security was the most important issue to address at the high school. Twenty-eight percent of students said infrastructure was their biggest concern.
“I’m sure you all see that many of these issues consented by students in this survey are issues that are listed in bond referendum and I commend the board on the focus on adjusting the issues that they know were of the greatest concern in the community,” Langmuir said.
Even though there was some community on the issues between the survey respondents and the projects listed in the referendum, Langmuir said students would like to be better informed of what’s going on in the district. Langmuir said about 80 percent of the students who took the survey had never attended a board of education meeting or town hall meeting.
“One of our primary concerns is finding ways in which we can bridge the gap between the student population and the board,” Langmuir said.
To address the issue, Langmuir said students would have an opportunity to attend an open meeting with school officials during their lunch period about a week prior to the election if they wished to get more information on the proposed bond.
The bond referendum special election will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 11 and consists of three questions. The three proposals include dozens of facility improvements and would cost the district approximately $210 million combined. The questions are progressive, meaning question one needs to be approved for questions two and three to have a chance at being approved. Similarly, questions one and two must be approved for question three to be approved.
Question one would cost the district about $49.7 million over 20 years. If approved, the average assessed home of $233,500 would see their school debt service taxes drop about $4 from the current amount of $75 to $71 per year. Question two’s projects amount to approximately $113 million. If questions one and two are approved, the average home’s school debt service taxes would cost about $237 per year, an increase of about $162 from current levels. Question three’s projects total about $47.6 million. If all three questions are approved, the average home’s school debt service taxes would cost about $307 annually, an increase of $232 from the current tax rate.
If all three questions fail, taxes would be reduced $75 for the average home as the district is scheduled to pay off its current outstanding debt early next year.
Langmuir said the survey was one of four she and Robinson planned to conduct at Cherry Hill East during the 2018–19 school year, with the goal of making the board aware of which issues students feel are most important to address at their school.
In other news:
- The board awarded a bid for a library HVAC replacement project at Kilmer Elementary School and Carusi Middle School to Falasca Mechanical of Vineland. Falasca’s bid of $259,900 was the lowest of the three bids listed on the resolution. A fourth bid from LGB Mechanical Inc. of West Berlin amounted to just $194,000, but the company withdrew its bid on Nov. 21.
- The board approved a resolution to permit Bret Harte Elementary School to apply for the Sustainable Jersey for Schools’ Going Green in the Lunchroom grant. The resolution states the grant would benefit the school by “reducing the overall daily waste significantly.”
- The Cherry Hill BOE will not have a work session in December. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 18, at 7 p.m. at the Malberg Administration Building. It will be the final meeting of the 2018 calendar year.
