What’s the story on the referendum?

If you’ve been reading the Ridgewood News the past few weeks, you’ve seen stories about proposed construction projects at several of our schools. The articles have not done a great job of explaining the big picture. Maybe I can help clear things up a bit.

Here’s the deal. We have physical needs at all of our school buildings. Some of the needs involve expansion: we need to add instructional and other space where we’ve run out of room to educate our school populations. In addition, we need to create permanent homes for some of our special ed programs which have moved from school to school in recent years. Some of the needs involve renovation: many of our buildings are very old and have typical old-building needs like roofs, windows, leaks, handicap-access, etc. It has come time to address all these needs and, since our budget certainly doesn’t allow us to save up for construction projects, we’ll need to acquire the funds via a bond, which must be approved by voters in a referendum, or vote.

Since last spring and continuing now, the Facilities Committee has been meeting with principals and looking at each school, compiling a list of needs in terms of expansion and renovation. The third area we’ll be looking at is energy efficiency – looking for ways to either save on energy costs or possibly to create our own solar power (if the finances make sense). And the fourth thing we’ll be looking at is our athletic facilities, especially fields and gyms. The ultimate goal of all this research will be to put together a package of the most important and vital projects districtwide, and then bring the package to the voters for approval, probably in September 2009.

Over the last few Board meetings, we’ve seen plans for expansion at GW and Willard. Monday night we’ll look at plans for Ridge and Hawes. Future meetings will discuss needs at Orchard, Travell, Somerville, BF and RHS. The purpose of these presentations is to keep you apprised of our thinking, and to ask for feedback from the public. We’ll also be taking feedback and answering questions at HSA meetings. Plans will be posted on the District website soon. We’re moving somewhat quickly right now because we have a deadline of January to submit plans to the state for approval.

So right now, we’re gathering info and estimating budgets. Eventually, we’ll put it all together and we’ll have to make some decisions about priorities. We will have to say “no” to some things…a lot of things. But the ultimate goal is to update our school buildings and create learning environments that serve all our children and that comply with state laws.

When it comes time to prepare for the vote, we’ll have detailed plans, budgets, FAQs and more. There will be meetings and presentations. For now, tune in to (or visit) Board of Ed meetings and/or HSA meetings to be part of the planning process. And, if you have any questions, feel free to post a question here (click "comments") or email me at lauriegood@mac.com.