Vote Yes on Dec 12th

I know that not many of you will see this posting but I think that those who may would be in support of my cause. For the past year I have been involved with the school district within my town on a commmunity planning committee. I wrote an editorial in response to an editorial that ran in Wednesday's (12/6/06) Press of Atlantic City Southern Ocean County Edition that will run this Saturday. I have copied the article below:

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I’d like to respond to Fred Laurenzo’s letter from December 6th, "Little Egg doesn’t need new school" with the following comments. First and foremost I, as well as many other parents of Little Egg Harbor, appreciate the support that Mr. Laurenzo has confirmed in the need to maintain the school facilities properly and vote yes to Proposal I on December 12th.

I do however want to point out some inaccuracies in Mr. Laurenzo’s statements regarding the need for an additional school. The largest point that is missed in his letter is that although the district saw a drop in enrollment in the 2006 school year, there is still approximately 200 unhoused students within the district. In order to address unhoused students, the district has been using temporary classrooms which have reached the end of their useful life. At the current George J. Mitchell School, the district currently has 11 such classrooms that are now considered substandard by the State and must be removed. The district must apply for a variance to continue using them for a short term. I think that Mr. Laurenzo would feel much differently if one of his grandchildren was forced to have class in one of the temporary classrooms each day as the conditions of these units is highly undesirable. Additionally if you look around the town it is hard to imagine that the district will con tinue to see any type of decrease in enrollment. It is fairly safe to say new home building will continue and hence more children will be enrolling in our schools.

Furthermore, it should be noted that a no vote to proposal II will eliminate the possibility of receiving state funding that would be made available to offset the cost of building a new school. This could potentially have a negative tax impact in the future should the state come in and require that a new school be built. It needs to be clarified that the property tax impact of approving both proposals is approximately 25 cent per day on a home with a $300,000 assessed value. Let’s not take the chance of missing the opportunity to receive $12 million in State funding. Citizens of Little Egg Harbor, please remember to get out and vote yes for both proposals next Tuesday.