District’s need for $170M a ‘result of time passing’
Wayne voters to decide on funding construction
WAYNE — Most schools in this part of the country are really old, which is why districts in New Jersey have put forward more than $1 billion worth of construction projects in special elections in three of the past five years.
But not all spending is blessed by taxpayers.
Last year, school systems across the state asked for voter support 34 times, and slightly more than half — or 55.6% — of the total proposed bonds were approved.
On Tuesday, voters will go to the polls to cast ballots on a proposed bond issue of $169.8 million to fund improvements at all 15 schools in the K-12 Wayne district.
More than a quarter of that sum is proposed to finance a 24-classroom expansion at the early childhood center at Preakness School on Hamburg Turnpike.
The 42,218-square-foot addition would accommodate a booming preschool enrollment and what some think could be a crush of new students when nearby housing projects are built and occupied.
Yet taxpayers have not been in favor of a district bond proposal in more than two decades.
A “yes” vote for these projects would address population demands and repairs to aging facilities before they start to burden the operating budget, school officials said.
“Wayne is a community that has high expectations,” Mark Toback, the longtime superintendent of schools, said at a recent public forum.
“Residents need an excellent learning environment for their children — they expect that,” he added. “They expect reasonable class sizes. They expect safe and well-maintained buildings.”
The referendum, Toback said, is a “result of time passing.”
But the bond proposal has been under assault by Mayor Christopher Vergano, who said at public meetings and
in videos posted on the township website that the dollar amount is too hefty for citizens and small businesses to absorb.
Vergano challenged the Board of Education to lower it and to pose the funding question on the ballot in November, when voter turnout is likely to be higher. He went so far as to declare that he would help the proposal to pass.
“Our teachers are the backbone of our system,” he said at a meeting Wednesday night. “They prepare our children to become lifelong learners. It’s not whether you have a single-pane window or a double-pane window.”
The district would receive $39 million in state aid if the bond proposal is approved.
The referendum measure will ask the average property owner, with a home assessed at $229,473, to pay $370 annually in school debt taxes for 25 years, the lifetime of the bond.
But auspicious timing might cushion the jolt of that tax bill increase.
Debt service for the last voter-approved bond issue is ending. According to school officials, that means the “real feel” tax impact of the new bond issue would be $254 per year for the typical homeowner.
In January 2003, voters endorsed a $60 million bond issue for the construction of Anthony Wayne Middle School on Garside Avenue. The proposal also included renovations to Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley high schools, and to George Washington and Schuyler-Colfax middle schools.
Trustees did not attempt another bond proposal for 12 years, until March 2015, when taxpayers balked by 22 votes at a relatively modest figure of $4.8 million for district-wide security enhancements.
School officials said they are still trying to catch up, budgeting for those improvements in piecemeal fashion.
Most schools now have two-stage vestibules, which add multiple layers of protection from intruders. The funding
package would pay for them to be installed at George Washington, A.P. Terhune School, James Fallon School, Lafayette School, Packanack School and Theunis Dey School.
Safety upgrades make up 4% of the bond proposal.
The largest portions of the funding package are the $44.9 million cost for the work at Preakness School and the $33.7 million cost to replace climatecontrol systems, such as boilers and unit ventilators, at every school except Anthony Wayne.
The bond proposal covers 63 items, including new sets of bleachers at the high school football fields — a total of $10.8 million — and the stabilization of soil beneath the foundation of the Anthony Wayne cafeteria. The worst-case price to address that issue, which is causing the brick facade to crack, was cited at $14.3 million.