The Middletown Board of Education met yet again for their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, February 25th at the high school of MHSN. The meeting was dominated by the March 11th referendum on approving to take state grants and issue bonds to repair roofs and cooling systems throughout the district.
In a presentation headed by the board’s business administrator, Amy Gallagher, the board laid out its plan to access the Regular Operating Districts (RODs) grants issued by the state’s Department of Education in order to repair roofs in 15 of the district’s schools and temperature controlling systems. The cost of the entire project has been estimated at 32.3 million dollars with the state willing to pump 12.9 million (40% of the project’s cost) and the district requiring to take out bonds for the last 19.4 million.
The presentation included pictures of missing ceiling tiles, water stains, and decayed pipes. Superintendent Dr. William George along with other members of the board coined the term “band-aid approach” on how the district has been covering and patching up holes and leaks in the roofing and pipes while they tried to convince the scattered public to vote of the referendum. “You can’t just put a wrap around it,” board member Bob Banta said concerning leaking pipes, “I think they’re (the “band-aid approach”) costing too much… the planning they wish to do now; it’s almost silly not to take it.” Banta said.
The board plans to replace the geothermal energy in the schools with new boilers. They raised the issue that the ethanol used in the geothermal pipes is causing damage to the pipes allowing it to leak out causing health and environmental concerns. The board also questioned the effectiveness of geothermal energy. “It takes a long time for geothermal energy just to change a couple of degrees,” Banta said.
The board talked with a sense of urgency about getting the projects completed. “We will like to get ourselves ahead of the curve,” Gallagher said, noting fears that interest rates may increase. “This is a substantial amount of money. We are asking taxpayers to pay 19 million dollars,” George said, “based on what we have now, for the foreseeable future we’re working with what we have now.” Gallagher added by saying, “by putting a new roof on a building we are protecting the value of our buildings.” School board President Susan Griffin pushed for the referendum saying that all the school board members were in favor of it.
The construct of the projects is planned to take place over the next two summers. Gallagher noted that if the planned construction is not completed over the summer than work would be done after school hours and not interfere with children while they are at school.
The school board is required to get approval from residents before they can take out and issue bonds. Reflecting on the possibility that the referendum may not pass, Gallagher said “there is no short term plans to go with these plans if the referendum does not pass… it will take at least 10 years to get these things done.” Gallagher later added, “We don’t have the money in our capital reserve. We cannot fund any of these projects… there is no money just sitting aside.” Over the past two years, the board spent about 6.5 million dollars on roofing repairs in the district alone and they fear that they will have to continue with small projects if the referendum does not pass.
The board has not yet selected a contractor to complete the jobs but does note that they are required by state law to accept the lowest made bid.
In addition to roofs and pipes, the district also plans to update the phones in their buildings. Gallagher noted that most of the phones in the buildings are 10 years old and said that “communication in schools is critical.”
The district plans to completely repair the roofs of Bayshore Middle School and the elementary schools of Bayview, Fairview, Leonardo, Lincroft, New Monmouth, River Plaza, and Navesink, with completing the repairs at High School North (40% of repairs remaining), High School South (84% of repairs remaining), Thorne Middle School (66% of repairs remaining), Thompson Middle School (44% of repairs remaining), the elementary schools of Ocean Avenue (72% remaining), Nut Swamp (76% remaining), and Middletown Village (14% remaining).
In non-referendum related news, the board announced its approval to spend 38,000 dollars to create new girls’ freshmen lacrosse teams at both North and South and a boy’s freshmen lacrosse team at High School South noting that low participation was the reason for not establishing a boy’s lacrosse team at North but notes that the opportunity to create a boy’s freshmen lacrosse team at North is still open but that they are still looking to recruit players. The board also discussed a possible change in the times of after school activities, especially for basketball games and wrestling matches, with concerns that students are being kept out too late to do homework and after school work. The board also is looking into possibly establishing volleyball teams at the high schools and allowing school cheerleaders to participate in competitive competitions.
The next board meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 25th.
