Dear Editor:
As a former member of the Haddonfield Board of Education (BOE), I have long been an ardent supporter of our school system, its students and public education.
Therefore, I regret to say that I have serious concerns about the BOE’s proposed $40.9 million school bond referendum, on which residents will vote in approximately sixty days.
My concerns center around the purported cost of the bond. In mid-November 2015, the BOE announced that the bond would cost the average Haddonfield household just $287 per year. Shortly thereafter, several local papers and the school district’s own newsletter reported that claim to residents.
What the BOE apparently missed is that the bond’s true cost may be as much as 50 percent higher, or a total of more than $400 per year, for the average Haddonfield household. A resident first brought that discrepancy to the BOE’s attention early last month, but the school board has failed to date to publicly acknowledge or address the discrepancy.
In practical terms, this discrepancy means that the bond during its term could end up costing the average Haddonfield household several thousand dollars more than the many thousands of dollars already projected by the BOE. And that is just for this one bond.
Why then has the BOE failed to correct its projection in a prompt manner? I truly do not know. Perhaps the BOE will announce a correction at its upcoming January 7 public meeting, and if that happens, I hope that the board makes its correction in a completely transparent manner.
For example, the school board would not be acting transparently were it to merely extend the bond’s term beyond the current proposal of 20 years. Such an extension would increase the number of payments and the total interest owed over the extended term of the bond, thereby costing residents substantially more in the end.
Finally, as a former school board member, I find it difficult to understand why four members of the school board (two of whom are on Buildings & Grounds Committee) were absent on the night that the board cast its critical vote to send its $40.9 million bond to the State of New Jersey for agency approval. One can only hope that residents will see more accurate, timely and complete participation from the BOE going forward.
Brett Harrison
