Oceanport voters pass $2.1M school referendum
State debt service aid expected to trim cost to taxpayers
BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

OCEANPORT - By a 2-to-1 margin, borough taxpayers approved a $2.1 million referendum last week that will fund improvements to both district schools.

On Sept. 26, more than 1,200 registered voters turned out to vote on the referendum, with 820 residents voting in favor of the spending plan, a little more than twice the 394 residents who voted no, according to Borough Clerk Kim Jungfer.

"This is the largest voter turnout since I have been here by far," said James DiGiovanna, Oceanport superintendent of schools, last week. "I don't recall ever receiving more than 1,000 votes, ever."

DiGiovanna estimated there are 4,000 voters in Oceanport and said approximately 30 percent of them voted last week.

"That is a large turnout," he said. "We never received 820 yes votes for anything."

The public supported a referendum that will cost the owner of a home assessed at $600,000 an additional $8 a month in taxes. That figure does not include possible debt service aid that the district may receive from the state, according to DiGiovanna.

The school district received notification from the state Department of Education that it is eligible for approximately $850,000 or 40 percent, of the entire project, through debt service aid, DiGiovanna said.

After debt service aid is applied to the project, taxpayers whose homes are assessed at $600,000, would only pay $5.50 more a month in taxes, according to DiGiovanna.

"The entire referendum process, from start to completion, was a wonderful example of teamwork, collaboration among all parties involved and hand work," DiGiovanna said.

"In the near future, the students and staff of the school district will be the true beneficiaries of all of this," he said, adding that the majority of the construction for the project will be completed next summer.

DiGiovanna said that throughout the past year, the Oceanport Board of Education's Referendum Committee worked on the details and plans for the referendum and over the past three months, a committee of interested members of the community in support of the referendum worked together to gather more public support for the referendum.

The referendum includes spending $318,500 in renovations to the K-4 Wolf Hill School on Wolf Hill Avenue.

Plans call for the removal and replacement at portions of the school, estimated to cost $266,500, and the installation of a new security system at the school for $52,000.

The remaining $1.8 million of the referendum will support improvements at the Maple Place School, grades five through eight, on Maple Place.

The breakdown of costs at Maple Place includes:

+ Automatic temperature control upgrade at $58,500;

+ Updating two science rooms and labs at $398,000;

+ Subdividing a room to create two classrooms, including installing a new HVAC system at $106,000;

+ Replacing cabinet heaters and hot water heaters in locker rooms at $13,000; and

+ Installing a new HVAC system throughout the school at $1.24 million.

Board of Education President Richard McKenna said in a prepared statement, "We would like to thank the voters of Oceanport for their support.

"We are confident we had the right proposal and we are fiscally responsible. The voters made the right decision on what is important to Oceanport," he said.