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NorthJersey.com
BLOOMINGDALE — Voters said yes to the district's plan to close and sell Samuel R. Donald Elementary School and expand Walter T. Bergen Middle School for students from first through eighth grades in Tuesday's referendum.
Of the borough's 6,277 registered voters, only 1,167 cast ballots, and 737 of them approved of the plan while 430 were against it.
District officials' plan includes a $22.6 million bond sale. They plan to pay off the debt through an estimated tax increase of about 2% for property owners on top of the Samuel R. Donald School's sale.
The district will now add 16 classrooms to Walter T. Bergen, renovate 10 existing spaces and create a second gymnasium and a full-service kitchen.
The redesign also calls for an elementary wing for grades one through five, a move that would bring the town's fifth-grade students back to an elementary setting for the first time in more than 20 years.
The two-story expansion will be fully ADA-compliant, with student and faculty restrooms on each level, district records show. A bridge would connect the two buildings, with a grassy recess area below.
Security upgrades are also planned, including the relocation of the main office. Additional renovations include a new loading dock and a tech lab on the lower level.
The cost to renovate the 106-year-old Samuel R. Donald School is $21 million, and the project requires the school's students to be moved out of town or into trailers for four to six years, district officials said.
The district estimates that consolidating to one school will generate savings of about $275,000 annually through the elimination of duplicate positions and reduction of utility and maintenance costs. Michael Nicosia, the district superintendent, said the savings will effectively offset the cost of the repayment of the staged bonds over 27 years.
"Savings from the closure of the SRD school will be solely dedicated toward tax relief," he said.
In addition to the sale of more than $22 million in bonds to raise capital, the district plans to use $4.2 million from its capital reserve account and revenue from the future sale of the Samuel R. Donald School to fund the project. Estimates place the property's value at $5 million, a ratable that could help generate roughly $125,000 in annual school tax revenue, officials said.
If a developer seeks to repurpose the land under a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, program, the mayor has pledged — pending Borough Council approval — that all generated funds would go to schools, district officials said.
Given the potential to refinance the bonds and apply proceeds from the property sale to keep the tax impact stable, district officials maintain that the proposal's impact on taxpayers would be a one-time adjustment rather than a recurring increase. For a homeowner with a $10,000 property tax bill, the annual cost of the project would be about $200, they said.
Residents participating in the Senior Freeze program would need to pay the tax increase initially. However, said the district’s auditors and the borough's tax collector, the amount would be reimbursed as part of the program’s regular process, district officials said.