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Sayreville seeks referendum to improve district’s schools

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SAYREVILLE – The Sayreville School District is pursuing a potential bond referendum ranging from $27.7 million to $99.7 million in 2020 that seeks to improve the district’s eight schools.

The eight schools of the district are the 65-year-old Jesse Selover School (built in 1954), the 50-year-old Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School (built in 1969), the 60-year-old Emma Arleth Elementary School (built in 1959), the 47-year-old Harry S. Truman Elementary School (built in 1972), the 86-year-old Woodrow Wilson Elementary School (built in 1933), the 15-year-old Samsel Upper Elementary School (remodeled in 2004 after first being built in 1952), the 51-year-old Sayreville Middle School (built in 1968), and the 57-year-old Sayreville War Memorial High School (built in 1962).

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In a press release, district administrators wrote, “In Sayreville, ensuring the safety, security, and comfortability of the environments that our students and staff learn and work in is the highest priority of the Board of Education and Administration. However, the average age of the school buildings in Sayreville is approximately 60. Furthermore, due to being underfunded by the state of New Jersey and the very lean budgets over the past two decades, the facilities in the district are in desperate need of renovation and refurbishment.

“In fact, although the school district has made major strides in improving its facilities, there is still much more work to be done,” the administrators wrote. “[This] is why the Sayreville Board of Education recently agreed to pay its architect of record to begin the process of preparing a facilities improvement strategic plan that includes a potential bond referendum, as well as other strategies, such as an energy savings improvement project, lease purchase agreement, and power purchase agreement; to make the necessary improvements to the working and learning environments of its students and staff.”

According to district administrators, there are five construction project domains to the improvements – upgrades to HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), HVAC for larger spaces, HVAC to upper floors, renovation of Selover, and roofing and windows.

Five potential facilities bond referendums are being proposed by district administrators to help improve the eight schools.

Superintendent of Schools Richard Labbe announced at the school board’s Nov. 19 meeting that 69 percent of the approximately 1,500 individuals who provided input on the potential referendum supported the first option, which has the highest cost and most improvements of the five. Among the Sayreville residents who provided input, 63 percent supported the first option.

According to district administrators, all five options dedicate $12.9 million towards window improvements and $6.26 million towards roofing improvements at Sayreville schools, excluding Selover, and $8.6 million to Selover improvements.

The first option will total $99.7 million and a homeowner with a house assessed at the borough average of $144,724 will pay $295 for the year, if approved. Alongside the window, roofing and Selover improvements, the option dedicates $72 million towards a new, complete HVAC system at every school except Selover, according to district administrators.

The second option will total $71.7 million and a homeowner with a house assessed at the borough average will pay $212 for the year, if approved. Alongside the window, roofing and Selover improvements, the option dedicates $18.8 million towards a new, complete HVAC system at Arleth, Eisenhower and Truman, $17.5 million towards upper floor cooling at Wilson, SUES, SMS and SWMHS, and $7.63 million towards large space cooling at Wilson, SUES, SMS and SWMHS, according to district administrators.

The third option will total $54.8 million and a homeowner with a house assessed at the borough average will pay $162 for the year, if approved. Alongside the window, roofing and Selover improvements, the option dedicates $17.5 million towards upper floor cooling at Wilson, SUES, SMS and SWMHS and $10.6 million towards large space cooling at every school except Selover, according to district administrators.

The fourth option will total $38.4 million and a homeowner with a house assessed at the borough average will pay $113 for the year, if approved. Alongside the window, roofing and Selover improvements, the option dedicates $17.5 million towards upper floor cooling at Wilson, SUES, SMS and SWMHS and $10.6 million towards large space cooling at every school except Selover, according to district administrators.

The fifth option will total $27.7 million and a homeowner with a house assessed at the borough average will pay $82 for the year, if approved. The option contains only the window, roofing and Selover improvements, according to district administrators.

“Essentially, projects will be for the purpose of substantially upgrading all school buildings, particularly the lighting, boilers and mechanicals, electrical infrastructure, windows, roofs, and the potential installation of central air conditioning throughout each school, and especially in larger spaces, such as cafeterias, media centers, auditoriums, and gymnasiums, and all rooms on second floors,” the administrators wrote in the press release.

“In addition, plans include the cost of potentially installing solar panels on the applicable roofs of schools so that they can offset the added utility expense of air conditioning; the renovation of the Selover School so that it can be transformed into an 18-21 year old program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities; and the construction of a new bus complex with a three bay garage, which will enable the district to repair and maintain a fleet of busses that it has been purposefully increasing over the past five years so that, to the best of its ability, it can ensure that Sayreville bus drivers are transporting the majority of its students.”

District administrators stated that they plan to submit the final project to the New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) in March 2020 and a referendum vote is scheduled for September 2020.

In addition to the facilities bond referendum, district administrators said that they are pursuing an energy savings improvement project (ESIP), lease/purchase finance agreement (LPA) and power purchase finance agreement (PPA) to improve Sayreville’s schools. Administrators stated that the ESIP, LPA and PPA can be performed within a budget cycle, upon DOE approval, but voter approval is necessary to perform the referendum projects.

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