Holmdel voters say yes to $27 million expansion $18,876,242 referendum passes by 425-vote margin

Holmdel voters say yes
to $27 million expansion
$18,876,242 referendum passes by 425-vote
margin

FARRAH MAFFAI FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS — Bryan Postelnek, 12, Middletown, and his father, Bob, sing a prayer during the traditional lighting of the menorah for the Festival of Lights at the Red Bank train station Saturday.

HOLMDEL — Voters last week approved an $18,876,242 school construction referendum 1,347 to 922.

Twenty-one percent of registered voters went to the polls.

The funding will be combined with an $8,134,278 state school construction grant to complete a proposed $27,010,520 expansion project.

Work is expected to begin in July, with the construction and additions to be completed by September 2003, so the schools will be ready for the 2003-04 school year.

"Holmdel is a community that is known for its commitment to excellence," said a very happy Schools Superintendent Leigh Byron. "The success of the referendum reaffirms that commitment."

Board of Education President Frank Pento also could not have been happier with the turnout and the results. "I am so happy right now that I cannot even think about what the alternative would have been. I really believe that the passage of the referendum came from our grassroots, door-to-door campaign."

Board members, as well as Byron, made approximately 15 presentations to different clubs and organizations in the community.

During those question-and-answer sessions, Pento said it became their mission to "answer every single question that people had. People may not have been happy with some of the answers, but they understood the need for the referendum. We really managed to change a lot of people’s minds while talking to them. We took the message right to the people, and they responded by coming out to vote."

Pento said that they really reached out to seniors and other people with fixed incomes who may have been nervous about the passage because of the taxes that will need to be raised.

The owner of a home valued at $200,000 will pay an extra 6.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in school taxes for the 2002-03 school year, an extra 5.9 cents for 2003-04, and an extra 0.2 cents for 2004-05 or a total of $256.76 over the next three years. The owner of a $300,000 house would pay an additional $385.14 for the same three-year period, and the owner of a $400,000 house, $513.51.

Business Administrator Dominic Carrea has repeatedly said there will be no more increases due to the referendum. Carrea said the tax increases will be felt next year because the debt service repayments from the 1996 referendum will begin.

The referendum project includes a new building on the Village School property, renovations to the existing Village School as well as Holmdel High School, plus $7,256,000 worth of capital improvements at all four district schools.

Village School improvements include a 57,900 square feet expansion, plus 2,110 square feet of renovations.

The new "house," which will be known as the lower school, will hold the pre-k, kindergarten and first-grade classrooms, while the current building, which will be known as the upper school, will hold the second- and third-grade students. Each house will have its own multipurpose rooms, gyms, libraries, art and music facilities, and main offices. Each house will have its own vice principal.

The high school will get 29,900 square feet of additions, plus an additional 1,000 square feet of renovations including six new general classrooms, two science rooms, a 4,000-square-foot auxiliary gym, a 2,000-square-foot fitness center, 77 parking spaces, an art room, another 3,600-square-foot cafeteria, plus a 1,380-square-foot kitchen. A retractable wall will separate the gym and the cafeteria, creating enough room for basketball courts.

Once the work is completed, Indian Hill School, which currently houses grades 3-6, will house grades 4-6. The project will also free up classroom space so that classes do not have to be taught, as they are now, in the teachers room, conference room, and different storage areas. Last week’s voter approval will also allow the science labs to be used for lab purposes only. They are currently being used as general classrooms.

At the grades 7-8 William R. Satz School, four classrooms that are currently used by the high school students will be taken back.

School officials said the referendum was needed to stop current and future overcrowding problems. Demographic information indicates there will be 4,200 students in the district by 2010, compared to the current 3,450. With the referendum project, Pento said the expanded facilities will be able to accommodate the school population until 2010.

When the construction is complete, homeroom classes at the Village School will be in the range of 16 to 21 students. At Indian Hill School there will be 22 to 25 students per homeroom. At Satz intermediate school, the homeroom sizes will range from 23 to 25 students. The projections are for 2003 to 2011.

Additional staff will be needed for growth in the district. In the 2002-03 school year, 8.2 teachers will be hired. During the 2003-04 school year, an additional 17.6 staff members will be hired. In the 2004-05 school year, the district will need to hire four staff members.