By MARK VILLANUEVA, Moorestown Board of Education member
In this column, Moorestown Board of Education Members, Mark Villanueva and Maurice Weeks provide monthly updates on what’s going on in the school district and on the BOE.
In May, the board examined a proposed $25.6 million bond referendum, continued to engage in contract negotiations with the Moorestown Education Association and welcomed Kathy Mullin as a new board member.
The proposed $25.6 million bond referendum contemplates significant construction at all school buildings and the administration building. The district’s primary stated goals are: to create additional space, to improve security and to advance the sustainability of existing structures.
With respect to the stated goal of creating space, the board received data that student enrollment has declined in the last ten years. By way of example only, according to the district’s audited 2018 financial report, enrollment at Baker, Roberts and South Valley declined by 13.8 percent, 10.2 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively, over the preceding ten years. All other schools similarly experienced declining enrollment. Further, in its evaluation of the potential impact of affordable housing development, the township’s recent reexamination of its Master Plan concluded that “there may not be a capacity constraint to educate the public school students from the township’s affordable housing sites (not including unmet need sites) and from market housing.” Notwithstanding this data, the nine member board voted 7 to 1 (plus one abstention) to approve the $25.6 million bond referendum.
With respect to the stated goal of security, safety and security measures comprise $937,500 — about 3.6 percent — of the $25.6 million project. Contemplated safety measures include intruder locks, doors, a mass notification system and other security enhancements. Because there is nothing more important than the safety of our children and staff, because the security measures cost a fraction of the total project and because the safety enhancements would take approximately three weeks to implement (as opposed to one year, if not longer, to complete the remainder of the project), I asked the board to separate the security measures from the remainder of the project. This would have allowed voters who favor the security elements to approve them without having to approve the other bundled aspects of the $25.6 million project. The board did not support a motion to separate the security enhancements, but I am hopeful that the board will ultimately pose separate questions on the November ballot. In my personal view, this would allow voters to prioritize safety and security without forcing voters to approve a bundle they may not fully support. For more information on cost allocation, please see the district’s website:
I encourage you to contact board members for more information (including supporting data) about these significant issues. There are differences of opinion among the board members and likely differences of opinion among voters. Your opinion matters.
The views and content in this column do not necessarily represent those of the Moorestown Board of Education as a whole or any other individual member.
