HILLSDALE—Public school district officials likely will discuss concerns and final due diligence reports on a nearby site to construct a new George G. White Middle School on an open lot on Magnolia Avenue.
Trustees will meet Monday, Dec. 13, at 6 p.m. at the Meadowbrook School, 50 Piermont Ave., with updates possible on efforts to investigate whether building a new middle School across from its present site at 120 Magnolia Ave. should move forward.
All meetings are in-person at this point and not broadcast or online, board president Shane Svorec told Pascack Press.
An agenda for Dec. 13 was not available at press time but due to be posted online Dec. 10, said the board’s business administrator.
A “possible timelines” chart prepared by the Ad Hoc Committee to study George G. White’s options noted a mid-March 2022 deadline to select a construction option and prepare a state application for bond funding, with a bond referendum in March 2023.
Officials, including Superintendent Robert Lombardy, recently told Pascack Press that following its due diligence to determine whether a site directly across the street from the current middle school is appropriate for a new school, the board faces a short timeline, by March 2022, to plan, estimate and propose a possible school bond referendum to replace the aging school.
While district officials have declined to make potential cost estimates public due to uncertainty about possible site and supply-chain concerns, and much unsettled about what a new middle school may include, councilman Anthony DeRosa provided a brief council update where he estimated a cost range for a new middle school.
Other estimates were included in an October presentation from the board’s ad hoc committee, though the cost numbers only give a rough idea of possible costs by showing what level of tax impact may be for various project cost ranges.
Estimates showed what it would cost taxpayers for a project that ranged from $20 million to $60 million, and accounting for expiring debt payments, the costs ranged widely, between a monthly $31 up to a monthly $94 tax impact on an average $472,530 home over a 20-year bond.
However, no official estimates on bond costs have yet been released by district officials.
In mid-November, Lombardy told us architectural plans may still change and costs were not yet clear on the likely middle school project. “It’s tough to say. I would like to be able to share with the community with exactitude what that number is to not allow for any misinformation to go out.”
He said once due diligence information is in hand, and following consultation with the architect, he anticipated a final project estimate by early 2022.
George G. White Middle School, built in 1922, houses grades 5–8, and had approximately 510 students in 2020, said the District’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan.
A survey of 28 ad hoc committee members showed 76.5% favored constructing a new building across the street. The committee presented an 80-page summary of options at the Oct. 11 BOE meeting.