State approval of proposed Princeton Public Schools bond referendum expected next week
School officials for the Princeton Public Schools hope to have the green light from the New Jersey Department of Education next week to go ahead with putting a bond referendum on the ballot in a special election in January.
The school board would need to approve the ballot question and the dollar amount the district would seek to borrow to fund various projects next month. The special referendum vote would take place on Jan. 25, District Business Administrator Matt Bouldin said at the school board’s public meeting Tuesday night.
Districts can choose from four dates each year to hold a special election, or they can put referendums on the November ballot in the general election.
If approved by the voters, the bond referendum of up to $17 million would fund roof replacements at all six schools in the district, along with rooftop HVAC replacements. Siding would be replaced at Little Brook Elementary and Riverside Elementary, and masonry at the high school would be restored.
The roof replacements would address issues with leaky roofs, and the new rooftops would make it possible to install solar panels on them. Some school roofs are approaching 26 years old, and others will be 17 years old this summer. Mortar joints are deteriorating at the high school, and pieces of concrete have been cracking.
In December of 2018, voters passed a $27 million bond referendum. The school board chose at the time not to include the roof projects in that referendum.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
Why isn’t it on the regular Nov election ballot- Always trying to get through one more dollar of corrupt spending… why do they need more money..they get so much money already and yet the buildings are shxx
The roof should have been done with th e last $27 mln. or the mlns before that… instead they chose to decorate guidance offices and build bathrooms at athletic fields and do a lot of other things that are behind schedule and not necessary … it is unjust this spending with no thought for the taxpayer and this attempt to push thru approval of said spending by rushing it onto special spending elections that the public is not really aware of
Because they want to bring solar to every school. Next bill the taxpayers will get. The current roofing does not support solar panels.
While I have no problem with the scope and $$ amount of this latest referendum, I’m really annoyed that a special election – at taxpayer expense – will be held for it. It should have been part of the Nov general election. Either the current School Board members are very poor planners, or they are afraid that the greater turnout at a general election will work against them. I certainly hope that whomever is elected to the 3 vacant seats on the School Board pays more attention to things like this.
Another bill will be coming for solar panels:
“The roof replacements would address issues with leaky roofs, and the new rooftops would make it possible to install solar panels on them.”