A bond referendum is simply a community vote that could authorize the school district to borrow funds through the sale of bonds. This funding method is similar to the way a homeowner uses a home equity loan to pay for a new roof. A school district sells bonds to generate upfront funding for projects that would significantly strain the day-to-day operating budget. School districts also use this financial tool to access exclusive state aid that is only available to districts with voter-approved bonds.

The needs of our school are not going away. By addressing them now, we avoid costly repairs or unexpected replacements that would fall 100% on local tax bills if they had to be funded through the normal operating budget. Voter approval also means the school has the funds to add classroom space to avoid larger class sizes, which would become inevitable if the school doesn’t build an addition soon.

Shrewsbury Borough School is acting now because voter approval of the bond referendum on Thursday, October 6 would allow construction to begin in June 2023 and finish by the end of 2024. This timeline means residents will no longer be paying for school debt from the last bond referendum when the new school debt kicks in and will start to see the benefits of having additional space the following school year.

The proposed projects address critical infrastructure needs throughout the building, enhance safety and security, and provide additional spaces for students and staff. See the full list of projects.

• Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) upgrades include replacement of outdated boilers, unit ventilators, air conditioning units, and electrical systems to make our school building comfortable during all seasons.

• Safety enhancements include new instant locking doors in the hallways, upgraded front entrances, new ceilings in the 1954 wing, and new windows throughout the entire building.

• The addition of three pre-K classrooms with flexible furniture and technology integration to allow the district to expand pre-K services, while keeping class sizes small in our other grades.

• The addition of a dedicated lunchroom that would address crowding, especially around lunch and recess time, when our current room is inadequate for simultaneously housing both on rainy days.

• The addition of another multipurpose room with a partition would allow for different learning activities throughout the day.

The safety of our students and staff is a top priority, and the proposed projects reflect that. The project list includes new instant locking, fire-resistant doors in the hallways, two upgraded front entrances for Main Office staff to control entry and exit from the building, new ballistic film glass windows in the entire school, and new ceilings in the 1954 wing to replace ones that are deteriorating.

The district knows the importance of outdoor space for learning and playing, as well as the need for parking spots adjacent to the school. The district is working with its architect to determine where the existing playground will be moved to and how to minimize any loss of parking spots. There is plenty of space behind the school for both a school addition, the playground, and parking.

We anticipate generating over $100,000 in revenue from the expanded pre-Kindergarten program both through tuition from new pre-K students and by saving money to keep students with special needs in the district.

Each pre-K student currently pays $10,000 in annual tuition. The addition would allow us to add three pre-K classes with 18 students per class. Once SBS admits all interested students from the borough to the pre-K program, any empty spots could be opened to students from surrounding towns. The three classes would generate $540,000.

We would need to hire 3 additional teachers and 3 paraprofessionals to staff the program. Salaries with benefits for teachers are around $92,000, and $53,000 for paraprofessionals.

The balance between tuition revenue and staffing costs would result in over $100,000 in revenue.

SBS also currently pays tuition to other districts to educate students with special needs, since students with special needs are entitled by state law to attend a pre-K program. Some of these students could attend SBS with additional space, for additional cost savings to the district.

While tuition generation from the program is important to the district’s budget, we also want to make sure we are adequately serving the Shrewsbury community. Our waitlist for the pre-K program is long, and those are Shrewsbury families who are unable to take advantage of a program that prepares their child for success in the same school building that they will attend for kindergarten through eighth grade. We want to welcome these Shrewsbury families into the school for pre-K and are anticipating that the state may mandate this in the coming years.

For the 2021-2022 school year, the pre-Kindergarten program had a waitlist with 27 children. That number has been as high as 30 children in other years. The addition of three pre-K classrooms would ensure that Shrewsbury families are not shut out of the early education program because of space constraints.

An additional multipurpose room would be versatile and could be used for whatever the school needs: STEM space, aftercare, assemblies, and more. The space would be flexible and could have a partition down the center to allow the space to be divided when needed. With so many potential uses, the added room would be in use all day on the average school day, freeing up more crowded spaces elsewhere in the building.

The total cost of proposed projects is estimated at $22,517,820. That figure includes materials costs, construction work, permit fees, and everything else needed to bring the projects to fruition. It also accounts for any additional costs that could arise during construction should materials or labor costs increase.

The assessed value of a home is used to calculate the homeowner’s expected property tax. The market value of a home is typically a higher figure and is an estimate of how much a home could sell for in the current market. In Shrewsbury, the average home assessment is $580,785. Inputting your address into this website will give you your home’s assessment.

The only money the district can spend on proposed projects is the amount approved by voters in the bond referendum. That money can be spent only on approved projects. If costs end up being lower than the approved estimate, that money is used to reduce debt, and thus, reduce taxes.

The state of New Jersey allows school districts to hold bond referenda on specific dates in January, March, September, November (General Election), and December. Shrewsbury's Board of Education and advisers chose the September vote date, and then the state moved the date to Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022 to avoid holding the vote on a holiday.

The Oct. 6 vote date is ideal for several reasons: it separates the vote from the hyper-partisan nature of the Nov. 8 General Election and allows the district to move faster to lock in bond rates and start critical construction work. When residents head to the polls in October, they’ll consider one question only related to the school construction projects, whereas if they voted on Nov. 8, they would also be weighing local, state, and national races, which often become politicized.

When the board learned that a vote date was possible sooner, they wanted to take advantage of that to not further delay the bond process. The bond market is still historically favorable to borrowers, and this can change rapidly in today’s economic climate if the district waits a month for the vote. Voter approval in October allows the district to secure bonds quickly and start construction by June 2023. A new addition could be ready by the end of 2024.

The way school districts educate children today is different than it was even 10 or 20 years ago. While SBS’s enrollment hasn’t changed significantly, public school education looks very different today. Districts need more space for small group lessons and project-based learning. Classrooms that used to be filled with lines of desks and one chalk board now are set up for collaborative, open-ended learning with a large table that students can gather around and technology integration. Likewise, more and more students leave their regular classrooms during the day to receive special services, such as speech-language or psychological services, which require small group spaces, rather than large classrooms.

Recognizing this changing pattern in education, the NJ Department of Education’s District Practices Capacity Analysis found that enrollment exceeds capacity by over 47 students in grades pre-K through 5 and by over 37 students district-wide at SBS.

Voter approval of the bond referendum on Thursday, Oct. 6 means work could start in June 2023 and finish by the end of 2024.

Failing two bond referenda in a row would negatively impact the infrastructure of Shrewsbury Borough School and could lead to larger class sizes and a significant loss of revenue for the pre-Kindergarten program.

If the bond referendum fails, the district will still need to fund critical maintenance projects and safety and security upgrades. Some repairs would be funded through the annual operating budget, but the district would miss out on 21% state aid to cover the project costs, meaning local taxes would absorb the full amount of the projects. Other repairs would only receive temporary fixes that could cost more over the long run. Local school taxes may rise to cover these expenses and make up for the lack of state aid, and construction costs could be even higher than they are right now.

If voters disapprove, the district will also not be able to add classroom space to expand the pre-Kindergarten program. This means over two dozen Shrewsbury families will miss out on the early education program each year. It also means that if the state mandates pre-K in the future, as lawmakers have already discussed, Shrewsbury Borough School will be left scrambling to figure out how to provide this service in a building that does not have enough space for more students. The district would lose out on tuition revenue that could come from admitting more pre-K students from both Shrewsbury and surrounding towns to the program.

Failing to build an addition also means all grade levels could experience larger class sizes and would continue to have to use the overcrowded “gymatorium” for lunch, recess, assemblies, and more. Shrewsbury families value small class sizes and strong education, but SBS’s building is currently over capacity and the crowding will not resolve by itself.

A failed bond referendum in 2016 and 2022 would set SBS back for decades. Failing to invest in the school building will create costly problems in future years for both the infrastructure and the lack of a robust pre-K program.

Anyone registered to vote with a Shrewsbury Borough address can vote in the Oct. 6 bond referendum. Check your registration here.

Voters must be registered by Thursday, Sep. 15 to participate in the Oct. 6 bond referendum. There are two ways to register:

• Online, by completing a voter registration form on the NJ Voter Information Portal.

• With a printed form, by printing and mailing a paper registration form, offered in English and Spanish, to Mary DeSarno, Monmouth County Superintendent of Elections, 300 Halls Mill Road, Freehold, NJ 07728.

Voting by mail is simple and convenient. If you are not already registered to Vote By Mail, print and mail the application to the County Clerk’s Office. Applications must be received by Thursday, Sep. 29 to have a ballot mailed to you.

Once registered, you will receive a Vote By Mail ballot prior to the referendum. That Vote By Mail ballot must be postmarked before Oct. 6 to ensure that your vote counts.

If you show up to your polling station on voting day and are told your ballot was mailed to you, or that you are not able to vote, ask for a provisional ballot. This ensures your ballot will be counted once all mailed ballots are double-checked and processed.