Nearly a week after a deadline passed for New Jersey to respond to the district’s referendum project applications, schools officials said they still hadn’t received a response from the state.
More than three months after the school district submitted project applications for its planned October referendum, Cherry Hill school officials said they were still waiting for a response.
While giving an update on current construction projects taking place across the district at last week’s board of education committee of the whole meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Business Lynn Shugars gave a short update on the referendum process to the board, saying the district hadn’t received approval of its referendum project application from the state. Shugars said the district had expected to hear back by now, saying it submitted its project applications on April 4.
Cherry Hill Public Schools is planning to hold a bond referendum on Oct. 2 with the focus being on major repair projects and security upgrades. The board of education approved the project application at its March action meeting.
District officials have not released specifics on the number of questions in the referendum or what the total cost would be. However, officials have said a bond of up to $51 million would be tax neutral due to expiring debt, and the first question of the bond could be limited to $51 million, with a focus on top priority items such as security, health and safety and building envelope projects.
Before questions are formulated, however, the district needs to receive a response from the state Department of Education. According to state law, the department of education has 90 days from receipt of the project applications to review them and determine the preliminary eligible cost. According to this year’s election timeline for school district bond referendums, schools districts planning to hold an Oct. 2 referendum are supposed to have a response from the state by July 4. This gives school districts 30 days to review the project application before giving official notice to the county board of elections of its intention to hold a referendum. The deadline for Cherry Hill Public Schools to notify the Camden County Board of Elections about the referendum is Aug. 3.
“I understand that, with 90 days for approval, the deadline was on or about July 4. As of today, we have not heard from the state,” Shugars said.
Shugars said district administrators have been constantly reaching out to the state to get an answer on their project application, but have received no response so far.
A couple board members expressed concern about the lack of a response from the state, with board president J. Barry Dickinson asking how the district can proceed without a response from the state. Shugars said the district wouldn’t be able to formulate questions until it receives a response from the state.
“At some point, if they have a 90-day statutory deadline, I have to assume that we will see or hear something soon,” Shugars said.
Later in the meeting, board member Kathy Judge asked whether a district in New Jersey ever had to push back a referendum due to a lack of response from the state, but school officials did not have an answer for her. Judge also asked who was looking at the district’s application. Shugars said she had been in contact with a reviewer from the state and had spoken to her about the district’s long-range facilities plan and other aspects of the applications.
Shugars said the delay in response could be due to understaffing in the department of education office as well as the deadline falling on a July 4 holiday. Superintendent Joe Meloche said district officials would continue to reach out to the state until they receive a response on the project application.
Despite the delay, the district is still planning to hold its referendum on Oct. 2. To do so, Shugars said the board needs to pass a resolution announcing its intention to hold referendum at its next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, July 24.
“At the next board meeting, we’ll be approving what I’m calling a ‘save the date’ resolution, which will alert the township and board of election officials that we are planning to have a referendum on Oct. 2,” Shugars said.
In addition, school officials said the board of education might need to hold a special meeting in the last week of July or first week of August specifically to approve the referendum questions.
