Collingswood voters set to consider controversial $44.5 million school bond referendum, the largest in its history

Collingswood School Superintendent Fred McDowell believes a $44.5 million school bond referendum that would close two neighborhood elementary schools and reconfigure grades is needed to bridge disparities in the South Jersey school system.

The largest bond referendum in the district’s history would drastically change the educational landscape in Collingswood, and if approved, the proposal — touted as a facilities project — would raise local property taxes up to $480 a year for the average borough homeowner.

The referendum, to be voted on Tuesday, would finance many changes, including acquiring a new building to house fourth and fifth graders, decommissioning two neighborhood schools, providing additional spaces for students with disabilities, and upgrading athletic facilities at the high school and middle school, including new fields, a new track, new grandstand bleachers, and concession stands.

Under the proposal, the district seeks to reconfigure the structure of its seven schools that enroll about 2,300 students to address long-standing inequities at Thomas Sharp Elementary School, which has the largest concentration of economically disadvantaged students and is the most racially diverse school in Collingswood, McDowell said. Those students have lagged academically compared with their counterparts in four other neighborhood elementary schools.

“The choices are pretty clear that we have to do something different,” McDowell said. “Our current structure is not working.”

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The bond referendum has drawn strong opinions around the Camden County community of about 14,000, where lawns have been peppered with signs both in support and in opposition. Tension escalated this summer after Mayor James Maley, who opposes the school closings, came out against the plan, saying borough officials were not included in the process and drafted a counterproposal.

“It’s a little more personal and nasty than it has to be,” Maley said. “There’s nobody that disagrees with the goals. You need to go through a process so people don’t feel like you’re taking something from them.”

The district wants to decommission Sharp and James Garfield Elementary, both more than a century old. Sharp would be repurposed and used for administration and as a recreation center. Garfield would be sold.

It would acquire and renovate the Good Shepherd Catholic School and convert it to an upper elementary school to enroll all fourth and fifth graders. The remaining elementary students would attend three schools — William P. Tatem, Zane North, and Mark Newbie elementary schools — which would be upgraded with age-appropriate and ADA-compliant playgrounds.

The Referendum Action Committee formed in opposition to the plan and launched a website to urge residents to vote no on the referendum. It says the plan’s negative impact on displaced students would outweigh potential benefits.

Said resident Lucille DeYoung: “The cost to our most diverse and economically challenged neighborhood in Collingswood is unacceptable.”

School Board President Regan Kaiden said closing schools is never easy, but would allow the district to make “a big systemic step” toward changing the academics and culture in schools that are not working for all students.

“We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different outcomes,” Kaiden said. “This is our chance to do something about it. All of our students deserve the opportunity to be in classes with students from all walks of life.”

Supporters, known as All in for Collingswood, have distributed yard signs, buttons, and fliers and collected donations to support the campaign.

“How a town chooses to invest shows who they really are,” said resident Bruce Smith, the father of two. “It’s an opportunity to meet the needs of as many kids as possible.”

Karina Seixas believes her son, Kingston, a second grader at Sharp, would be exposed to racial incidents at another school because he is biracial. She believes the referendum is dividing the community.

“The schools need to integrate more at the elementary level, not close,” Seixas said.

Collingswood has experienced racial problems in its schools in recent years. Several Collingswood High School students were investigated in April after allegedly forming a White Student Union and making inflammatory racial slurs and threats of physical violence toward other students.

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About 30% of all Collingswood elementary students travel to a school that is not the closest to where they live due to their needs and where programs are located.

According to McDowell, three elementary schools are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, so students with physical disabilities must enroll elsewhere. English language learners are housed at James Garfield Elementary because of staffing and space shortfalls, he said.

“When young people are in a diverse environment, all groups do better,” McDowell said. Collingswood covers 1.8 square miles, and its population is 80% white, 12% Black, 6% Hispanic, and about 1% Asian.

Because of the space limitations, all but one elementary school has a single class for every grade level, McDowell said. Students have little opportunity to interact with their peers until they reach middle school, he said.

McDowell said the district needs a new school but cannot afford to borrow enough money to build one in the landlocked borough. In order to get state approval for the referendum, it had to show it needed additional seats, and that’s why it began developing the proposal about two years ago, he said.

Maley believes more community input is needed and asked the school board to halt the referendum. His plan called for the borough to acquire Good Shepherd and hold it for the district while both work on a plan to develop improved facilities. The board rejected that proposal.

“We fear that an election result, regardless of the outcome, will only deepen the divisions and continue to hinder our common goals,” Maley wrote.

What happens if the measure fails?

“We keep educating our kids and do the best we can for them,” Kaiden said.

Added McDowell: “At the end of the day we have a moral and ethic responsibility to meet the needs of our students. There would be really hard choices that would have to be made.”

Collingswood voters last approved a bond referendum in 2005, for $30 million. A $13.7 million bond proposed in 2018 to replace an antiquated sports stadium, to put in a turf field and a six-lane track, and to install new playground surfaces at all schools was rejected.

If approved, this year’s referendum could add about $480 annually in taxes over 30 years for a home assessed at the borough average of $232,569, according to the district. The state is expected to contribute $4.7 million. The district said the bond term would run for 30 years. School taxes represent about half of the average bill in the borough.

Statewide, voters in 14 school districts on Tuesday will consider school construction projects totaling more than $584.2 million, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. The state would contribute $110 million. The special election is one of five times during the year that school boards may ask voters to approve a bond issue or special question.

The referendum questions can be a tough sell to voters because they typically seek a property tax increase. They allow districts to pay for projects that cannot readily be funded through their annual operating budgets. Haddonfield has scheduled a $46.7 million referendum for Dec. 10 that would fund all-day kindergarten and renovations.

Collingswood has the only bond question in the tri-county area on Sept. 17. Elsewhere in South Jersey, Northfield in Atlantic County, Dennis Township and Middle Township in Cape May County, and the Greenwich Township and Stow Creek districts in Cumberland County are asking voters to approve spending measures for construction and school projects.