To the Editor:

I voted for the previous $80 million school referendum since it was the right thing to do in providing needed capital improvements for the future. Now, 14 years later, we are being asked for an additional $130 million for some needed improvements, but others that are questionable.

As a project manager for the construction of seven schools at the NJ School Development Authority, I noted wasted expenditures as architects strove to create state-of-the-art schools at our expense. Without adequate input from teachers, parents, students, and the community, design follows an architect’s assumptions. Architects are not educators. The proposed referendum needs more review from the Princeton community that will be responsible for a 30-year tax obligation for Princeton students and Cranbury students.

We need to approve priorities like security, AC, and the crowded conditions that exist now. But the wish list for $130 million needs further review of numerous BOE (Board of Education) assumptions, such as student growth projections. Town Council has submitted an Affordable Housing Plan to meet the requirement of 472 apartments by proposing that developers construct an additional 1,888 market rate homes or apartments, resulting in extraordinary future student growth and perhaps another school bond issue in coming years. This is the equivalent of nearly nine AvalonBay developments, regardless of how they are spread throughout Princeton.

The last referendum improvements to the high school resulted in lawsuits and compromised settlements that did not cover the total costs, with construction and design deficiencies that exist to this day. Let’s not rush into a $130 million concept that needs community and educator input.

Vote for a sensible plan that addresses needed improvements, not a plan that exceeds those of similar school districts by 300 percent.

Peter Madison

Snowden Lane