Point Pleasant Beach Schools Referendum Still Awaiting State Feedback

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — A proposed $23.9 million construction and repairs package for the Point Pleasant Beach school district is still awaiting review by the New Jersey Department of Education.

District officials are hoping to have answers, including how much the state will fund, sometime next week, officials said at Tuesday's Board of Education meeting.

Board President Sherry Finn said the delay means the district has not yet written the proposed referendum for voters to weigh in on, because it does not have the key element — how much the proposed package would cost Point Pleasant Beach property owners — settled.

Finn gave the update in anticipation of questions at the meeting, where the board had hoped to have answers on the costs of the package, which was presented to the public at the April board meeting.

She said the district hopes to have the information for the board to vote on at its September meeting, which has been rescheduled to Sept. 19. The hope is to hold the referendum in December.

The proposed package, which can be reviewed here, includes new boilers at Point Pleasant Beach High School, a new fire alarm system at G. Harold Antrim Elementary School, alterations and updates to existing classrooms, new LED lighting, and repairs to the building at Antrim.

The package also includes a proposal to build new tennis courts at Antrim — and the removal of badly deteriorating courts at the high school — as part of an expanded athletic complex at the elementary school. The football field would be replaced with a turf field, and the district would build a combination field house and education center. Read more: Point Pleasant Beach Schools $23.9M Referendum Projects: First Look

The state review will include which parts of the project will be eligible for funding of up to 40 percent from the NJDOE.

Once the district has the funding information, the proposed referendum question will be written and the board and district officials will have meetings with the community to answer more questions on the specifics.

The proposed field house and turf field have been criticized by some in the community as unnecessary, and as being proposed solely to draw more tuition students to the district, which has seen enrollment decline in recent years.

Superintendent William Smith said Tuesday night that the proposed spaces are a response to needs in the community, including persistent requests for basketball court space that the district frequently has to turn down.

The field house would include a public space for meetings, which is sorely lacking in the borough, he said.

For example, Apple has reached out to the district as part of its partnership — the elementary and high schools were named Apple Distinguished Schools in 2021 — about hosting a meeting to share Point Pleasant Beach's approaches with other schools.

"We have no place to hold the meeting," Smith said. "We're scrambling. That red trailer, we bought it on eBay so we would have a meeting room temporarily. That was five years ago."

Smith said the tennis court repairs are costly — resurfacing would cost $100,000 — and said the money would be better spent on new courts that would also be lined and useable for pickleball. Pickleball interest has been growing by leaps and bounds and towns all over have been converting or adapting tennis courts to accommodate the sport.