By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
MARLBORO – Residents will be asked to approve $26.3 million worth of capital improvements at six buildings in the Marlboro K-8 School District in a Sept. 27 referendum. Polls will be open from noon to 9 p.m. that day. All registered voters in the township will be eligible to vote on the proposal.
On Feb. 16, the Board of Education unanimously approved the wording of a referendum which will request voter support for “renovations, alterations and improvements” at the Marlboro Middle School, the Frank Defino Central Elementary School, the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School, the Asher Holmes Elementary School, the Marlboro Elementary School and the Robertsville Elementary School.
According to the proposal, $6.16 million would be allocated to the Marlboro Middle School; $3.93 million to the Frank Defino Central Elementary School; $2.61 million to the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School; $4.9 million to the Asher Holmes Elementary School; $4.73 million to the Marlboro Elementary School; and $3.97 million to the Robertsville Elementary School.
Administrators said the district would receive 40 percent of the total cost in state debt service aid. The scope of the project is expected to include windows, fire alarm systems, temperature control panels, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, electrical boards, feeders, boilers, pumps, switchboards and electric generators.
According to Business Administrator Cindy Barr-Rague, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $465,000 currently pays $305 per year toward the school district’s debt. That payment is expected to remain the same until 2020. If the referendum now being proposed by district officials is approved, then in 2021, the owner of a home assessed at the township average will begin paying $92 per year toward the school district’s debt – a savings of $213 from the current debt payment portion of the school tax bill.
