BOE passes resolution to hold $85 million referendum

November, 2024
Emil KapurAvantika PalayekarReed Sacks


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On September 1, the Princeton Board of Education passed a resolution to vote on a bond referendum worth over $85 million intended to renovate school facilities. The proposed renovations, if passed in full, would impact Princeton Middle School, PHS, and each of the four PPS elementary schools by modernizing aging district buildings and expanding PPS’s capacity to accommodate an increasing student population.

The projected spike in student population is a result of the municipality of Princeton complying with New Jersey’s affordable housing requirements via the construction of multiple residential developments across the township, the largest being those adjacent to the Princeton Shopping Center. Moreover, on October 18, the state mandated municipalities across New Jersey to meet specific housing obligations: Princeton is calculated to currently need 60 affordable housing units, with an additional 276 in total over the next decade. As such, the district expects an even greater influx of students, which the BOE purports will be beyond the current capacity of PPS.

“We, as a community, know that there’s been some affordable housing mandates and that the ... housing that Princeton was required to build resulted in about seven new developments that were approved by the council and are now underway and being built around town,” said Beth Behrend, an executive BOE member.

If approved, the BOE’s proposal for a bond referendum — where the local government asks for a vote from the public to approve or reject a project — would allow the government to borrow (via bonds) funding to complete the project. Princeton Township residents will vote on this referendum on January 28, 2025. To ensure that the public has a greater degree of flexibility surrounding the parts of the proposal they support, the BOE has divided it into three parts, each of which will be voted on independently.

“There’ll be three questions on the bond referendum, and question one has to pass for question two to pass, and questions one and two have to pass for question three to pass as well,” said BOE member Susan Kanter. “Since I’ve been in Princeton, that [hasn’t been] how referendums have gone out, so it’ll be new to the public to have that choice.”

The first proposal section, or “question,” would renew Community Park Elementary facilities and install small-scale ventilators at PHS, along with a broader HVAC system. Although the improvements would cost approximately $37 million, savings from the new HVAC may total $150,000 to $200,000 annually.

“The renovation will encompass the building’s HVAC system, including the chillers, the boilers, and the air handling units,” according to the PPS website. “This work will bring these outdated systems up to par with those at the elementary and middle schools."

If the first question were to be approved, Princeton residents would then vote on the second question, which costs $38.3 million and largely consists of changes to PMS infrastructure. However, this question would also remodel the Numina Art Gallery and transform current district tech offices to be used for student instruction. The third question of the proposal, worth nearly $13 million, is focused entirely on constructing more classrooms and enlarging existing facilities at Littlebrook Elementary.

“The school district does not operate in a vacuum, and we are aware of other recent impacts to the taxpayer. After much discussion, the Board and administration believe that a three-question format is the best approach to let voters decide their additional level of investment in the public schools,” said BOE president Dafna Kendal.

Behrend and Kanter emphasized that the state, rather than the municipality, would pay for significant parts of the proposal; approximately 15 percent of the question one and two funds would come from New Jersey. If all three questions were to pass, owners of Princeton homes with an average assessed value of $853,000 would see an estimated increase of $532 yearly for 27 years of financing.

BOE members disavowed any form of advocacy from other members, emphasizing the importance of voter input in the January decision.

“Our job is just to put together the solutions, and we’ve worked really hard on it for many years, and had some really good professionals advising us,” said Behrend. “We’ve had a lot of forums with the public … it’s been a really collaborative process. We all learned a lot, and I think we all feel pretty good about the solutions we’ve come to, and now putting it out there for the voters to consider.”


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