On December 10, Haddonfield voters will head to the polls to vote to approve $46.7 million of maintenance, renovation, and construction projects for the public schools. To fund these projects, which include new classroom space in all three elementary schools, a new turf field and gym at the high school, renovated auditoriums, accessibility improvements, and maintenance and safety upgrades across the district’s buildings, the Board of Education wants voters’ approval to issue bonds. This would allow the school district to obtain money to pay for projects now, with the debt paid back over decades through property tax increases.
A unique advantage of a bond referendum is that it allows the district to receive money from the state to help pay for some projects, like essential maintenance. “If we were to do those maintenance projects not through a bond referendum, it would come out of our capital improvements or our maintenance [budget],” said Board of Education president Jaime Grookett. “So it would come right out of our budget. We wouldn’t get any state aid for it.” Out of the $46.7 million in proposed total improvements, $9 million, or roughly 20 percent, would be covered by state aid.
One of the biggest components of the referendum projects is the addition of three classrooms each at Central, Elizabeth Haddon, and Tatem elementary schools, in addition to small-group instruction spaces and changes to libraries. This would allow full-day kindergarten to be offered — Haddonfield is currently one of the few New Jersey school districts without it — and also provide room for growth. “We will have additional space in each building that can be used for future expansion,” said Charles Klaus, the district’s superintendent. Mr. Klaus has previously warned that new housing developments in town may necessitate redrawing the elementary school area boundaries to avoid overcrowding some schools. However, when asked about if the new classrooms could fix the problem, he cautioned that other factors play a role. “We should have spare classrooms we could add more sections to, but adding sections also costs a lot of money, so we have to balance that,” he said. In addition, he explained that adding an elementary school section requires one being added to each of the five grade levels, which might exceed available space.
The bond referendum will also enable numerous construction projects, mostly for athletics, along the high school side of Hopkins Lane. A new parking lot would be built and historic buildings on the site would be restored. A new gym would have a competition-sized basketball court and auxiliary area for wrestling, and Mr. Klaus said the addition of other facilities, like a raised indoor track, was a possibility. A full-sized turf field would also be built using existing funds. Mr. Klaus contended that these projects are sorely needed, comparing Haddonfield’s facilities to other area schools. “About 700 kids [at HMHS] play sports. Kingsway has about 700 kids playing sports. They’ve got three gyms,” he said. “We have one gym and 1.6 fields, and we’re under-serving that population.” He and Ms. Grookett also pointed out the impact a new field would have on youth sports. “A lot of the younger students are practicing after the high school and they’re not getting home from practice until 8, 9 o’clock as young kids,” said Ms. Grookett. Mr. Klaus said that the field would result in an additional 27.5 hours per week of practice time available for youth sports.
Some community members have raised questions about why all the bond referendum projects are being combined into one question for voters, instead of separate votes on, for example, the athletics construction on Hopkins Lane and the projects at the elementary schools. Both Ms. Grookett and Mr. Klaus used the analogy of puzzle pieces fitting together to explain why the projects all depend on each other. “One of the things we needed is space, and some of the projects we’re doing are contingent on having the wrestling room moved out of the high school so that we can make that additional instructional space,” said Ms. Grookett. She also pointed out the safety implications of leaving Hopkins Lane alone: “Safety is key and there are aging buildings on that parcel,” she said. “We can’t keep those fenced around. It’s just not a long-term solution.”
Ms. Grookett and Mr. Klaus said the community’s needs have informed every step of the planning process leading to the final proposal. To decide what topics should be prioritized, there were visioning sessions with community members. “We targeted specific groups of people,” said Ms. Grookett. “Elementary school parents, middle school parents, high school parents, sports parents, theater parents, arts parents to really get the entire gamut that that would be impacted.” Residents without kids in the schools also provided input, she added. The groups identified common themes, and “from that, we saw our main tenets of what we would need to include in this bond referendum and we started planning from there.” The current referendum proposal is actually the second one in the past few years: in 2023, the BOE approved purchasing the Kingsway Learning Center building to house all preschool and kindergarten classes and set a referendum date for February 2024. But this January, the purchase was canceled and the referendum moved from February to the current December date. Mr. Klaus pointed to this as proof that community voices were being heard. “We were going to buy a new building and I still believe it was a really good plan,” he said. “But we know the town didn’t like it, and it’s taxpayer dollars, not Chuck’s dollars. So we got rid of that, and we moved on to a different plan, and I think people appreciated the fact that we listened to them.”
Ms. Grookett encouraged people to vote by December 10, reminding them that it isn’t a traditional election day. Mr. Klaus said that mail-in ballots for the referendum will be likely sent out the second week of November. “We just want people to vote,” he said. “I think the plan is really solid and if people look at it and they vote, it will be successful.”
