School Referendum Costs, Projects To Be Finalized At Special Moorestown Meeting

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Questions that have loomed for years around Moorestown's planned school bond referendum could be answered in a few days.

Moorestown's Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Monday to select the ballot questions for the referendum, which is expected to fall on Sept. 16.

The ballot questions will reveal exactly which facility upgrades Moorestown residents will vote on, along with how much they will cost taxpayers if the referendum passes — a question on residents' minds throughout the multiyear referendum-planning process.

The special meeting is expected to begin at 6 p.m. Monday, Moorestown's school board president said at June 17's meeting. But the precise time will become available once the meeting agenda is released.

"I expect our only business is going to be voting on the bond referendum questions," said Board President Mark Villanueva.

During the referendum, township residents will vote on whether the Moorestown School District can issue bonds to fund significant upgrades to all schools and facilities. Although a successful bond referendum typically leads to a local tax hike, it's essentially the only path for New Jersey schools to partially fund those upgrades with money from the state.

The district's referendum proposals include:

• Expanding William Allen Middle School: WAMS currently serves students from Grades 7-8, while Moorestown Upper Elementary School (UES) holds Grades 4-6. Expanding WAMS would allow it to take in sixth-graders for a traditional middle school setup. UES would serve Grades 3-5, allowing for a more traditional elementary setting.
• More elementary space: The shifting in grades is partially designed to help reduce class sizes in Moorestown's three "lower" elementary schools, which would go from PreK-3 to PreK-2. According to district plans, this would free up space to provide free, full-day kindergarten and make the district eligible for preschool-expansion aid.
• Moorestown High School upgrades: The district wants to expand MHS's classroom space, among other renovations to the school's indoor and outdoor facilities. Moving the bus lot would create space for this expansion.
• Infrastructure upgrades: These include replacing HVACs and boilers that the district has called obsolete, along with updating roofs and better waterproofing buildings.

Before a bond referendum, school districts send potential projects to the New Jersey Department of Education, which determines how much state aid it would allocate toward each project if residents approve them.

Past referendum coverage:

• Feb. 19: Bus Depot Won't Go Behind Moorestown Upper Elementary School
• March 25: Moorestown Changes School Referendum Plans: 4 Things To Know
• April 30: When Will Moorestown Schools Unveil The Bond Referendum Questions? What To Know

With that information, district officials select which projects will appear on the ballot. The questions include how much local taxes will increase if the majority of residents vote in favor. There can be one or multiple questions.

Moorestown's school district has received state-aid figures, Villanueva said June 17. But the board and district administrators were still privately formulating the referendum questions at that time.

That information is set to become public at Monday's special meeting, when the board is slated to vote on which referendum question(s) will appear on the ballot.

Districts must select ballot questions at least 60 days before a referendum. Moorestown's school board is holding the special meeting to meet that deadline ahead of the referendum planned for Sept. 16.

Otherwise, the board's next meeting would be in August.

Visit the district's referendum website for more info.