Cresskill school officials detail $12.5 million referendum

CRESSKILL — School officials met with residents this week regarding a proposal to expand an elementary school in response to a continued rise in the student population. 

“We are already at a point right now that is not acceptable for a school district of our reputation in terms of resources and classrooms,” said Superintendent Michael Burke. “I called the county office and said we have 27 [students] in a classroom, and they said ‘that’s crazy.’ It’s going to continue.” 

Superintendent Michael Burke detailed the project and answered questions from the public during a special meeting on July 11. Architects from Di Cara/Rubino Architects also showed site plans for the proposed $12.5 million project, which would add an early childhood center with eight new classrooms that would connect to Edward H. Bryan Elementary School.

A referendum will be held on Sept. 26. If the district is granted approval, the school board could go out for a thirty-year bond for the project, which would cost the owner of a home assessed at $600,000, the borough average, approximately $172 a year. 

The project would total $12,466,400, with about 25 percent of it – nearly $3 million – covered by debt service aid. Burke said the district is eligible for this aid because it is adding to an existing school building; it would not receive this aid if the building were a standalone facility.  

The project would also include an elevator that would connect all four floors of the Bryan Elementary School, replace the roof and windows and repave a sidewalk. Merritt Memorial Elementary School would receive a roof replacement, window replacement and replacement of a sidewalk.

Security and IT upgrades would also come to both elementary schools, Cresskill Middle School and Cresskill High School.

To accomodate the addition, two homes near the elementary school would be purchased and  demolished. They would be replaced by the early childhood center for preschool and kindergarten classes. 

Burke said the district is “growing precipitously now for quite some time,” with an increase of 300 students over the past nine years. If the growth trend continues, Bryan School and Merritt Memorial School might not meet fire codes. The maximum occupancy for a classroom in the elementary schools is 28 to 31 people.

 “I’ll give a realistic example for everyone here who has children,” said Burke. “That would mean I would have to take children with a teacher … and I would have to randomly decide what students are pulled out of the class that is over the fire code and placed with a different teacher, a different group of students and a different room.”

By connecting the new building to the Bryan Elementary School, the preschool and kindergarten classes are able to share a principal, gymnasium and cafeteria area with the elementary school. 

“If you tried to build a new building, with the new codes and specifications, that are not connected, you have to account for all of those areas,” said Burke. “We are fortunate that the two properties that are located right next to Bryan School were at a point where they were ready to move forward with the sale.” 

The addition would also free up space in the high school. Two preschool classrooms that are in the high school this year, at the site of former board of education offices, would move to the new addition, freeing up two classrooms at the high school as well, said Burke.

“Classroom space is at a tremendous premium,” said Burke. 

The board is looking to lease 129 Madison Ave. and 14 Brookside Ave. from the borough to hold board offices. Burke previously said is would not cause any increase in taxes.

If voters approve the proposal, design documents would take about six months to complete. It would take two months to bid and award the project to a contractor, and about fifteen months to construct the building. The early childhood center would be ready for classes in September 2019. 

If voters reject it, Burke said the district could try to modify the referendum and go back out, but the items in the current proposal are “all essentials.” 

“There are no extras,” said Burke. “You hear sometimes about athletic fields; that is not in here ... we would have to look at our budget and figure out how we can then pay for it. Plus, we would not get back the debt service aid from the state.”

Reconfiguration of classes within the school was once on the table, but this would become only a temporary solution, said Burke. 

“Reconfiguration without getting extra property reduces the size of two grades and raises the size of one grade, said Burke. “In short, it’s a Band-Aid.” 

A 2013 demographic “undersold and underestimated” the number of students that would come to the district by 2017. A new student, conducted during the process of putting the referendum proposal together, predicted the population will continue to grow for two years and level off for the “near future,” said Burke. 

“If I go by the last demographic study, which undersold the increase, if this [new] one undersold it, we are really in trouble,” said Burke.