'If Not Now, When?' TR Referendum Targets Critical School Repairs

TOMS RIVER, NJ — If you pull up to the football fields at the three Toms River high schools on any Sunday in the fall, chances are you will find adults milling around, herding kids in football gear and cheerleading outfits for the weekly Pop Warner football games.

In some of the schools there are religious services held by groups too small to rent a permanent building. During the week, various organizations — both for-profit and nonprofit — rent space for meetings. The Toms River basketball league uses gym space for its games. Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts and other groups hold get-togethers of various kinds.

And in times of crisis, whether it was Superstorm Sandy in 2012 or a fire at a senior citizen apartment complex on Thanksgiving just six weeks ago, the schools have provided emergency shelter to the residents of the community.

"These facilities are used by the community seven days a week," Superintendent David Healy said Thursday night in the cafetorium at Toms River High School East, as district officials gave the first of three final presentations on the district's Rebuilding Our Schools initiative. The $147 million project is set to be put before voters in a Jan. 22 referendum.

Of the $147,148,269 package, the state will cover $47,281,593, leaving $99,866,676 to be paid by district taxpayers, Business Administrator William Doering said. That additional debt service would cost Toms River taxpayers $11.80 per month, or $141.65 per year, for a home assessed at the township average of $272,400. In Pine Beach, on an average assessment of $267,900, it would cost $11.06 or $132.72. Beachwood taxpayers would pay $8.06 per month or $96.75 per year on the $203,600 average assessment, and in South Toms River, the cost would be $6.04 per month, or $72.52 per year, on a home assessed at $165,200.

The district has set up a tax calculator that allows residents to see the exact tax impact for their home. Click here, choose your town and enter your assessed value to see the cost per month for your home.

"These are the maximum tax impacts," Doering said. And the debt service tax levy will fall by $4.7 million in 2025-26, which will offset "a significant portion" of the expense of this project, he said.

Healy said the issues that need to be addressed are critical repairs and upgrades to facilities that are anywhere from 45 to 65 years old.

"They are at an age where it's tough to keep up with the maintenance at the rate they are crumbling" and breaking down. East Dover Elementary School, for example, has a boiler that is 65 years old. It's being replaced through the district's Energy Savings Improvement Project, because it will improve energy efficiency, but it's just one example of the aging infrastructure. At Toms River East, an elevator that is necessary for providing access to a second floor for students with disabilities has reached a point where it's ultra-expensive to repair it.

Pothole-filled parking lots and crumbling concrete on sidewalks and curbs pose a safety issue, and cannot be addressed through an ESIP. Aging roofs that need to be replaced have to be done before they allow water to get into parts of the building that would result in more serious damage.

Doering said delaying these projects much longer runs the risk of emergency repairs that would cost significantly more. And if the referendum doesn't pass?

"If it doesn't pass, the projects still have to get done one way or another," Healy said, "and other things will suffer" because the funding would have to come out of the general budget, which is already burdened with the state aid cuts.

"I was here for the dedication of this building in 1979," said Russell Corby, who is the board vice president this year. At the time Toms River East opened, the district had seen such a population boom that it built eight schools in a span of 16 years.

"Someone paid for those schools and it wasn't just the people who moved into the towns," Corby said. Everyone contributed because it was seen as a responsibility of the community. "There was a sense (back then) among the older generation that our community comes first."

"Now, it's our turn to put our community first," Corby said.

Healy noted the district has worked hard to seek other funding sources for improvements, including a $60,000 makerspace lab at Toms River Intermediate East, restoring the Poseidon Academy downtown using grant funding and much more. In total, the district has garnered $2 million in grants that have been spent directly on facilities improvements.

Investing in these buildings is an investment in the property values, board president Joe Nardini said.

"Our children deserve better facilities, ones that are safe," he said, commenting on how parts of the Toms River East walkway are marked off for safety reasons.

Nardini also noted that the project includes a project labor agreement that requires companies bidding to hire locally, providing jobs in the community and meaning the money taxpayers spend comes back to the local economy.

"If not us, who?" board member Dan Leonard said. "If not now, when?"

Among other issues addressed:

• The replacement of turf on the turf fields, which were installed in 2006 at a cost of more than $1 million each, will be more cost effective over time than returning to grass fields. Healy said grass fields are very maintenance-intensive, costing about $40,000 per year. They also cannot be used as heavily as the turf fields, which are currently used by the football, soccer, field hockey and lacrosse teams at the high schools, as well as the youth football on the weekends. The new turf is expected to have a lifespan of 15 years.
• District officials are pressing the state for information on how to apply for funding under the state school facilities bond measure approved by voters in November. So far they have not received the guidelines.
• Air conditioning upgrades and installation are sought to help combat moisture inside the buildings that can lead to mold issues and more serious and expensive problems.

There are two more meetings: 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 7 at Toms River North, and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8 at Toms River South.

More information can be found on the Rebuilding Our Schools referendum website.

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Photos shows crumbling curbs at Toms River Intermediate East and Washington Street Elementary School.