Board of Education President Mark Villanueva offered an update on the school bond referendum at the board’s recent meeting and hinted at a Sept. 16 vote on the measure.
The Moorestown schools referendum will determine whether the district can issue bonds to fund upgrades to all buildings and facilities.
“An important part of that process is determining what pieces of the project will be set forth for a vote to the community, and the manner in which those pieces will be presented to the community,” Villanueva explained, “whether that’s a single question, two questions, three questions – what have you.”
The board passed a resolution earlier this year to send new project applications to the state. That step, according to the referendum website, was necessary for the district’s architects to submit revised applications for eight projects, thereby starting a review process that will determine state aid and tax impact.
Two updated applications are related to the move of the school bus depot, and the other six were prompted by a recent software update that requires the replacement of automatic temperature controls for all building HVAC systems.
“We are a little bit handcuffed in finalizing any questions to the extent we need information from the state,” Villanueva noted. “We hope to get that as soon as possible, but if history serves as a reminder, we were hopeful towards the end of last year that we were going to get feedback from the state sooner than we ultimately got it.”
The original plan to hold the referendum in March was put on hold so district officials could have more time to determine which projects should be on the ballot and whether the community should vote on one or multiple questions, according to the Moorestown Patch.
The board, Villanueva said, is hopeful it will hear back from the state sometime in June. But it’s possible that won’t happen until July, and if so, the board will schedule a special public meeting for voting on the referendum questions because the district has a 60-day deadline to approve the ballot questions before Sept. 16.
“As we get closer to the September election, you’re probably going to see a lot more of us and hear (from) a lot more of us,” Villanueva acknowledged, “but we want to make sure that people are educated about the scope of the referendum.”
The referendum proposal is focused on keeping students in their neighborhood elementary schools, which is not always possible because of capacity issues; moving sixth graders to the William Allen Middle School for age-appropriate social and extracurricular experiences; expanding innovative programming at the high school; creating safer, more functional buildings and grounds with HVAC, roof work and drainage upgrades; and adding to and enhancing athletic facilities to improve traffic flow and parking.
More information regarding the bond referendum is available at https://future.mtps.us/home. District representatives and volunteers started holding community outreach events about the measure this month. For more information on those events – scheduled through June – visit the referendum website.
