Manchester Board Of Ed Going Out For $15.5 Million Referendum in September

Manchester Township Board of Education members recently agreed to go out for a $15.5 million referendum in September for "critical" upgrades, a spokeperson for  the district said.

The board approved the measure at the July 23 meeting. Upgrades are needed for roofing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, sites and security, said Lee Bruzaitis.

The referendum will be held on Sept. 30. Forty percent ($6.2 million) would be funded with state grants. The local share would be $9.3 million. The state grants are only available for a limited time, she said.


Architect Steve Siegel of Spiezle Group and Sherry Tracey of Phoenix Advisors explained the proposed project, which involves work at all five district schools,

Siegel said that the district started with a larger list of possible project items, then pared it down to the most critical facilities needs, Bruzaitis said.

The HVAC systems in some buildings are at the end of their useful life and roof warranties have expired, he told the board.

Spiegel said that the district has been using a ‘Band-Aid’ approach, pouring money into maintenance and repairs for these items, which impacts the budget and takes operating funds away from curriculum and program funding.

“It’s not that the district hasn’t kept up on maintenance.  They have done a great job keeping these systems going for so many years,” he said.

Board President Donald Webster, Jr. said that over $30 million in projects were initially identified in the last referendum. The items that were removed still continue to be issues for the district today and need to be addressed, he said.

Tracey said that the district would secure a 15-year bond at a rate of 3.5 percent to finance the project.

Business Administrator Craig Lorentzen said that the district is spending $250,000 to $400,000 annually for maintenance on HVAC equipment and roofing is that is 25 to 30 years old.

 “The HVAC contractor is literally here every day,” he said.  “We can’t get parts – sometimes they have to make the parts.” 

He said that the older equipment is inefficient and does not have dehumidifier features to take moisture out of the air and may have contributed to recent mold problems at some school buildings.

 “Right now, we are running portable dehumidifiers throughout this building (Ridgeway Elementary School) to keep moisture levels down,” he said. 

Leaking roofs also contribute to moisture and mold problems, he said, and are constantly being patched by the district maintenance crews.  “These are funds we could be putting into other areas like classroom technology.”

Siegel said that the HVAC upgrades, along with proposed lighting upgrades, would result in energy savings for the district estimated at $5.6 million over the next 15 years.  This funding would be used to help pay down the debt and reduce the impact to the taxpayers.

Security upgrades are also proposed to create vestibule areas Siegel called "mantraps," designed to limit visitors’ immediate access in the school building to the main office only.

Currently visitors are buzzed in to the main entrance, but those areas are open to the school hallways as well as the main office.

Tracey said that the tax impact of the project would be $19 a year or $1.58 a month for the average homeowner in Manchester at the average assessed value of $156,400.

Lorentzen said that the retirement of two debt service bonds over the next two years would decrease the tax rate enough to minimize the cost to the taxpayers.  Tracey said that energy and maintenance cost savings would also minimize the impact.

“The state funding of $6.2 million and the anticipated energy savings of $5.6 million that would be applied to pay off the debt would allow the district get $15.5 million worth of work done for $3.7 million,” said Lorentzen.

The state grant funding would only be available if the referendum passes. If the district doesn’t utilize the funds now, they could be reallocated to other districts Siegel and Lorentzen said.

The timing of the referendum for September 30 would allow work to be done over the summer of 2015.  If the referendum passes in September, the design process would take place during October-February, bids would go out in March, prep work and equipment ordering would take place during the Spring and work would begin in June through September 2015, school officials said.