The Cherry Hill Board of Education has set the date for the bond referendum for Dec. 11 and district officials unveiled their proposal for three questions at last Tuesday’s BOE meeting.
On Dec. 11, Cherry Hill voters will go to the polls and vote on the largest school bond referendum to take place in New Jersey in at least a decade.
The Cherry Hill Board of Education officially approved a new date for the district’s bond referendum of Tuesday, Dec. 11, and got a look at what the questions for the referendum could look like. In a presentation, the district proposed breaking up the bond referendum into three questions totaling approximately $210 million.
According to historical bond referendum data from the New Jersey School Boards Association, the $210 million is the highest amount for any individual school district bond referendum in the state since at least 2008. A special board of education meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 2, for the board to officially adopt the referendum questions.
When voters go to the polls, they will be asked to vote “yes” or “no” to each of the three questions. The questions are progressive, meaning question one must pass in order for the second question to have a chance at being approved, and questions one and two both must pass for question three to have a chance at passing.
Assistant Superintendent for Business Lynn Shugars discussed the various tax impact options depending on how many questions pass. For the average assessed home of $223,500 in Cherry Hill, residents currently pay about $75 in school debt taxes.
If only question one of the bond referendum were to pass, the average assessed home in Cherry Hill would pay a little more than $71 annually toward debt service, resulting in a reduction of about $4 in taxes.
“We are currently paying about $75,” Shugars said. “It would actually be a small reduction by approving question one because we have that debt expiring and the new debt coming on.”
If both questions one and two were passed, the average assessed home would see taxes increase about $162 annually to $237. The passage of all three questions would result in an annual increase of $232 in taxes to about $307. The district plans to go out for 20-year bonds on the projects.
If all three questions fail, the average assessed home in Cherry Hill would see taxes decrease about $75 as the district will pay off its existing debt at the end of the 2018–19 school year. Barbara Wilson, public information officer for Cherry Hill Public Schools, said the district does plan to go out for a bond referendum again if the referendum in December fails.
The first question will amount to approximately $49 million and includes security upgrades at 15 schools. There will also be major building repairs, such as exterior wall repairs at all schools, asbestos abatement at most schools, and partial or full roof replacement at some buildings. All of the elementary schools would receive new HVAC units in their existing all-purpose room in question one, and Johnson Elementary School would receive a new multi-purpose room.
“Johnson is the only school that has (a new multi-purpose room) in the first question because it is the smallest APR in the district,” Shugars said. “It has no windows, one of those hot boxes if you’ve ever been there on a warm June or September day, you can understand why this was a priority for us.”
The largest question, question two, will total approximately $113 million. Question two includes additional infrastructure work such as corridor ceiling replacement in every school, electrical service upgrades, partial HVAC replacement and water piping replacement at some buildings.
In question two, Carusi Middle School would also receive a roof replacement and new fire alarm system. Because of the large amount of work with asbestos abatement and repairs at Carusi, temporary classroom units would need to be used in the 2019–20 school year if the bond passes. Those units are also included in question two.
“The project is so big and the amount of renovation that’s going to have to be done, there’s no way we can do it over a summer,” Shugars said. “We’ll do the (asbestos) abatement pieces over the summer when the buildings aren’t occupied, but we’ll do the reconstruction while the school year is going on because if we only did it over the summer, this project would take 10 years to do.”
Other projects in question two include new small group instruction rooms at many schools, classroom toilet renovations at all of the elementary schools and Barclay Early Childhood Center, public bathroom renovations at many schools, and the construction of a new multi-purpose room at five elementary schools.
Question three would total approximately $47 million and includes mostly hard surface projects, such as paving, new sidewalks and curbs, building accessibility improvements and storm drainage improvements. The middle schools and high schools would also receive upgrades in community spaces under question three. Some of the proposed projects include auditorium, locker room and athletic facility upgrades at Cherry Hill High School East, science lab, locker room and athletic facility improvements at Cherry Hill High School West, a gym and locker room renovation at Carusi and a locker room renovation at Beck Middle School.
Polls will be open for the bond referendum from 3 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 11. The polling places residents use for the general election will also be used for the bond referendum.
To view the full list of projects for all three questions, visit www.chclc.org/board-of-education/2020-vision.
