The approved referendum will allow for nine new classrooms, three at each elementary school. Pictured is a rendering of the classrooms as well as a second floor to be added at Haddon Elementary School.
Haddonfield residents have approved a $46.7-million bond referendum that will benefit each borough school and the Hopkins parcel.
The vote took place on Dec. 10. As of three days later, unofficial results indicated there were 2,928 votes in favor and 807 against. Bids for the referendum projects are expected to open in the spring, with construction beginning in summer. The work is expected to take three to five years, according to the district’s website for the bond referendum.
The full bond referendum amount is $46,692,085, and since the measure was approved, the district will receive nearly $10.6 million in state funding. Residents can expect an average tax increase of $369 per year for the average assessed home of $530,509.
The referendum projects will address six areas of need, including accessibility, additional classrooms, auditoriums and athletics, building maintenance and safety, early-childhood education and specialized learning and media centers. School Superintendent Chuck Klaus noted that the measure’s passage was the result of preparation that spanned two years.
“We did a lot of work to communicate, first of all, why we were doing this and the fact that there was a need and the solutions,” he explained. “Our goal in that was, we believe if people saw our rationale and solution, they would support it, and they did.”
The board of education addressed the referendum at a number of its meetings and conducted the sessions at different schools. Members also held a town hall where they took questions, and set up meetings with the community, including a coffee with residents.
“Voter approval means all five of our schools will benefit from improvements across the board,” Klaus noted. “I’m especially excited to see how we can better address the needs of early-childhood education,
which forms the foundation for everything else.”
Klaus said the referendum will allow for more accessibility within the buildings, what he called the most critical of the projects. Other changes include adding an elevator at Haddon Elementary School, reconfiguring the middle-school cafeteria serving line and improving stadium access at the high school.
“Not all of our buildings are completely accessible, and they need to be.” Klaus pointed out. “If you can’t navigate stairs, you can’t get to the main entrance of Elizabeth Haddon Elementary. That’s unacceptable.”
The referendum will also fund nine new classrooms at the elementary schools to accommodate full-day kindergarten and a growing population, for an additional 225 seats. And with a number of new housing options coming to Haddonfield – including The Place at Snowden Avenue – there has been much discussion about reaching capacity in those schools.
“This will put us in a position that when those numbers come, we’ll have solutions in place,” Klaus said.
As for the Hopkins parcel, the referendum will fund an $11-million athletic complex that can be used by students, youth sports teams and the community. It includes a competition size gym and an auxiliary gym for wrestling. The parcel will also get a synthetic turf field that will be built with reserved funds, rather than through referendum money.
To learn more about the bond referendum projects, visit haddonfieldschools.org/vote.
