Hopewell Valley voters will make their choice next week on whether or not to approve the Hopewell Valley Regional School District (HVRSD) $87 million referendum for improvements to all six district schools.
The official vote occurs on Sept. 17.
If voters reject the referendum the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education will need to decide on the next steps.
“One option is to continue diverting funds from the educational programs toward temporary facility fixes,” Superintendent Rosetta Treece said. “We submitted applications for the proposed referendum projects to the state Department of Education and that review process usually takes three to six months.
“The state only allows five days a year that schools can hold these kinds of votes, so options could include a referendum in March of 2025. If we couldn’t get the state review completed in time for that date, the next opportunity would be September of 2025.”
Based on the school district’s past experience they anticipate that costs would be higher in the future, Treece said.
Proposed referendum projects are for Hopewell Valley Central High School (HVCHS); Timberlane Middle School (TMS); elementary schools – Bear Tavern, Hopewell, and Stony Brook; and Toll Gate Grammar School.
The projects include roof replacements; indoor improvements; HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) improvements; exterior door replacements; synthetic turf field; and an auxiliary gym floor replacement.
HVAC referendum projects and improvements account for 40% of the total proposed project costs at $35.3 million, school expansion projects are 30% or $26 million of the cost, roof replacement and improvement projects are 12% or $10.7 million of the total cost, the synthetic turf proposed is $5.8 million or 7% of the cost, restoration projects are close to $5 million (6%), safety accounts for $3.5 million (4%), and water and sewer projects are 1% or $767,729 of the cost.
Without the referendum, the school district would still need to continue to address the most critical needs at district schools.
“Sometimes an emergency forces us into that position, such as the plumbing disruptions caused at Timberlane Middle School when tree roots grew under the school’s foundation and restrooms had to be shut down,” Treece explained
“Without voter-approved bond funding, we would take care of some improvements with budgets funded by local taxes. We would lose the opportunity to qualify for about $20 million in state aid, so improvements would take longer.”
Some of the referendum projects would never fit into the district’s operating budget, Treece added.
“There is no way for a school district to hold enough funding in reserve for a project as large as the building additions proposed for Bear Tavern and Toll Gate,” she said.
Hopewell Valley Central High School (HVCHS)
The plans for HVCHS are roof replacements in areas to reduce leaks and repairs, accessible restrooms, restoring the pavement of the Solar Canopy parking lot, the addition of a football stadium concession stand, and replacing the obsolete HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system in the 400 Wing to improve air quality and energy efficiency.
Timberlane Middle School (TMS)
For TMS, the projects include roofing replacements, replacing select deteriorated exterior doors, adding air conditioning in the auxiliary gym, replacing various HVAC systems, a floor replacement for the auxiliary gym and construction of a synthetic turf field.
Bear Tavern Elementary School
Proposed referendum projects for Bear Tavern consist of roofing replacements, renovating the sewer pumping station, replacing deteriorated doors, replacing various HVAC systems in the main office, cafeteria, media center and music rooms, replacing classroom doors, and modernizing the cafeteria and hallways.
A significant part of the projects proposed is a 10-classroom, one-story building addition that would be constructed to move students out of trailers and address a projected increase in enrollment.
The addition will include eight general classrooms, a room for occupational and physical therapy services, and a Child Study Team/Support room.
Hopewell Elementary School (HES)
The HES referendum project includes roofing replacements, replacing of exterior doors, replacement of classroom doors in the primary building, and enlarging two kindergarten toilet rooms to provide ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) access.
Stony Brook Elementary School
Referendum projects at Stony Brook include roofing replacements, replacement of exterior doors, drainage improvements, installing a new chiller to supplement the existing geothermal system and replacing obsolete HVAC systems.
Toll Gate Grammar School
Toll Gate’s projects include roofing replacements, exterior door replacements, third flood upgrades to the HVAC and DOAS (Dedicated Outdoor Air System), replacing electrical equipment, and building a new six-classroom building addition.
The proposed addition would contain six classrooms with internal restrooms and eliminate the use of trailers for instruction, offices, or storage.
