Referendum is Most Practical Solution To Address Current and Future Growth
To the Editor:
Regarding the upcoming referendum vote for Princeton Public Schools, I offer the following for consideration by the taxpayers as they weigh the pros and cons of supporting what I believe to be a well-conceived plan by the district. During my own recent service as a School Board member, I wrangled with this planning. As a parent, I know our middle and high schools to be unpleasantly crowded and Littlebrook School has no room for storage or growth. Redistricting is coming for our elementary schools no matter what, and the referendum will enable that redistricting to be thoughtful while supporting walking and biking to school.
I begin with the premise that small class sizes are in the best interests of our students and teachers. New housing units continue to be built in town. Growth is here and coming.
Fellow taxpayers have asked good questions, including:
Why not use the Westminster Choir College buildings?
Why not build a new school (e.g., a grade 5/6 school proposed a few years ago)?
Can’t we use the empty sections of the Valley Road school building?
Didn’t we just approve referendums in 2023, 2022, and 2018?
To briefly address each:
We don’t know if or when the Westminster acquisition might go through. The extent of site inspections plus remediation, then renovation, needed to make the buildings safe and ready for students would be many years — and unknown millions of dollars — away. This site may provide an opportunity for the schools in the future.
New construction is ineligible for significant debt service aid from the state. A taxpayer dollar spent on renovation goes further than one on a new build. PPS does not own an empty site available for a brand-new school, and a new school would come with attendant costs, most significantly an entirely new operating budget, including new personnel at all levels. I personally deemed such an investment to be cost prohibitive and impractical.
The site at Valley Road would require extensive demolition of existing structures at great expense, and the land area is undersized to be worth the investment of creating a new school. Also, see above about new construction and operating costs.
Thanks to our community’s dedicated support, we did indeed pass three referendums in recent memory. Each made targeted improvements in safety, wellness, sustainability, technology, and major maintenance (e.g., new roofs). Large capital expenditures cannot be covered in our district’s annual budget, and the referendum structure allows us to use state debt service aid to reduce the cost to Princeton taxpayers. If all three questions pass in this referendum, our community will receive an estimated total of $19.9M in aid, which is a significant cost savings to taxpayers. I view it as the most practical solution to address current and future growth. Without the referendum, we will face costly trailer rentals, impractical redistricting, and the possibility of larger class sizes, none of which seem acceptable to me.
Thank you for your consideration.