Belleville Schools Will Move Ahead With Upgrades After Bond Vote Fails

BELLEVILLE, NJ — The Belleville Public School District will be moving ahead with plans to do a multi-million dollar series of renovations after a bond proposal to the town council was turned down – but it may cost local taxpayers more money, an administrator says.

The Belleville Town Council recently voted 4-3 against an ordinance that would have backed a $3.75 million bond to make upgrades in the local public school district. Read More: Belleville Council Votes Against Bond For School District

Prior to the vote, Richard Tomko, superintendent of the Belleville Public School District, gave some details about the request, which included:

• $1.5 million for a turf sports field
• $1 million for furniture upgrades
• $500,000 for maintenance vehicles and other equipment
• $500,000 “E-Theater” (for e-sports)
• An additional $250,000 for contingencies

Tomko compared the request to a parent co-signing a car loan for a child. According to the superintendent, the township would have assumed no responsibility for the bonds unless the school district defaulted on them.

However, the Belleville Town Council voted to turn down the request at their Jan. 23 meeting.

Mayor Michael Melham – who provided one of the “no” votes – released a statement that explains the reason why he personally voted against the ordinance.

“First, you need to know that unlike the municipality, school districts cannot bond,” the mayor wrote. “They receive their annual proportional allotment of tax revenue, and that’s all they get. If they need more, they need to go to the voters and have a referendum passed.”

In rare cases, the district can ask the Essex County Improvement Authority (ECIA) to issue notes for “equipment,” but said notes must been backed by the township – and therefore require council support, Melham said.

According to Melham, the funding mechanism that the school district proposed is legitimate – but irregular. And it should only be used sparingly, he added.

“Since becoming mayor in 2018, the council has backed this move twice, and I’m unsure if it was ever done by previous councils,” Melham wrote.

The mayor questioned Tomko’s claim that the $3.75 million payment would result in a tax increase of two tax points, saying the bond rate would be “3.7 percent subject to change,” which is inherently unpredictable.

He also said the township's bond counsel advised the council in a letter that the bond proposal was “premature to consider at this point.”

Melham insisted that the town and the local board of education continue to have a solid working relationship. Read his full statement here.

• See Related: Belleville School Budget Gets Green Light: Here's The Tax Impact
• See Related: Belleville Municipal Tax Increase Lower Than Expected For Homeowners

MOVING FORWARD

Tomko told Patch that he was left “very confused and taken aback” after the council’s vote on Jan. 23.

The superintendent said the letter Melham cites was sent the day before the town council meeting, but he was never contacted about the issues it raised. If so, he would have been better prepared to respond to the council’s concerns, Tomko said.

“This is exactly why there are two readings on ordinances – an introduction and then time to get the answers to concerns back to the mayor and council before the final vote,” Tomko said.

“In my 25-plus years in administration, I don't think I have ever known a board of education – or a municipal government for that matter – to deny the first reading of an ordinance or a policy, especially if there were questions that needed to be answered,” he continued.

“In fact, I don't know of any other ordinance in recent Belleville history that the mayor and council haven't given at least the courtesy of a first reading,” Tomko said.

According to Tomko, the district will be moving forward with its upgrade plans. But it may end up costing local taxpayers more in the long run, he pointed out.

“We will need to receive leasing from a private source which will now cost the taxpayers more money in interest fees,” the superintendent said.

“As I stated during the council meeting, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. and his team came through for our district once again, and we had specifically budgeted for what the ECIA funding formula would prescribe, even unaware of what the specific rates would be since we were unsure when we would receive approval,” Tomko said.

“However, we were still able to make it work in what we had projected in our upcoming budget. Now, the district will fall victim to higher interest costs that will ultimately cause us to reduce our project scope and spend more overall,” he said.

“We will not let this stop the continued progress of the district,” Tomko insisted.

Patch reached out to Melham to seek comment about the superintendent’s concerns. He provided the following reply:

“In short, just like the mayor and council do with our municipal budget and subsequent constraints, Dr. Tomko and the BOE trustees need to do the same. The township council has previously taken the unconventional steps to back BOE bonds on numerous occasions. I do believe no council in the history of Belleville has ever done this. As a matter of fact, just the past few years, we have done it twice, do the tune of [more than] $15 million. This time around the council (as a whole) clearly wasn’t interested in doing it a third time, which is well within our collective rights as a body.”

STUDENT ENROLLMENT ON THE RISE

Last year, Tomko said that the Belleville Public School District is expected to see 625 new students over the next decade. He noted that the hundreds of new students who are expected to arrive over the next 10 years include 258 who will live at new development projects that have recently sprung up in the township.

The superintendent added that he is “100 percent” for the new real estate projects that are helping to fuel the enrollment jump – “that’s called growth,” he said – but he warned that “you have to be ready for it.”

When asked about the town’s level of responsibility to help the local school district prepare for the projected enrollment increase, Tomko said that more work needs to be done before the two bodies are on the same page – and the vote on Jan. 23 proves it.

“My first year in Belleville, we had to redistrict the entire elementary population because of overcrowding at the middle school based on poor planning,” Tomko said. “Classes were being held in hallways, and it was a very unsafe environment.”

“This cannot happen again 10 years from now,” he emphasized.

Tomko said there is often a divide between a developer’s predictions and the reality of the situation, which can lead to higher student enrollment than expected:

“As a historical Belleville example, Mayor Melham stated at [the meeting] that the last time he checked the numbers at Essex Park, there were 19 students from that development. However, we are currently facing an incredible influx as our current numbers for that development (Essex Park) include a staggering 45 students (35 students attend Belleville public schools; four students attend Sandy Lane through Belleville pre-K; six out-of-district students attend charter schools (at an average of approximately $30,000 per student). And even though a newer development such as Soho seems delayed, I am most worried about those units since they are very conducive to family leasing.”

“Recently, I proposed that we schedule a joint public meeting of both entities to present possible solutions should these enrollment projections come to fruition,” Tomko told Patch. “This is even more important since the board was not involved with any development discussions, nor will the district receive any funds from any developer payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreements to offset projected costs for needs related to enrollment increases.”

“These numbers and my concerns are real,” Tomko insisted. “To not even work to put a plan together to be ready for a possibility of this magnitude would be irresponsible leadership especially since it will cripple the township.”

“That's why I am glad that the mayor reiterated that the council is still committed to supporting the district in the future, and I am confident that a transparent discussion will take place in the next few months based on that statement alone,” he said.

• See Related: Belleville Schools May See 625 New Students In 10 Years, Official Says
• See Related: Belleville Schools Ask For Proof Of Residency In New Signup Process

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