Facilities

Our children deserve schools that are safe, accessible, functional and welcoming. The district has completed approximately $180 million in facilities work since 2019. That is significant progress. At the same time, the Long-Range Facilities Plan published in September 2025 (and further revised in February 2026) identifies hundreds of millions of dollars in additional needs. A significant portion of those projects are urgent to ensure basic safety, accessibility, and functionality.

We have had ceilings collapse multiple times at Maplewood Middle School. We have elevators that do not work reliably, creating accessibility problems for students, employees, and visitors with disabilities. Bathrooms at Columbia High School and elsewhere in the district need attention. Seth Boyden does not have a functioning gym.

At the July 30 Board of Education meeting, the Superintendent indicated that the district is considering a bond request in the range of $55 million to $75 million. I support a bond of that scale if the proposal is focused on our most serious needs and the public is given a clear accounting of how the money will be spent. Accessibility must be part of this work from the beginning. That includes elevators and projects to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), as well as previously-contemplated gender-neutral restrooms and single-stall changing facilities to comply with New Jersey law and Department of Education Guidelines on Transgender Students.

If elected, I will request a full accounting of:

All the work done with the 2019 bond – what was completed and at what final cost, what was cancelled and why and whether the uncompleted work has been incorporated into the current LRFP;

A detailed presentation to the public on the current LRFP, indicating the reasoning behind the Superintendent’s proposed set of projects and why other projects are being deferred;

Assurance that project costing anticipates the likely presence of asbestos and other potential impediments;

Subsequent incorporation of community concerns in the final proposal;

The hiring of an independent firm to provide rigorous oversight of both construction quality and financial management of project expenditures;

Proof that the costing of any Ritzer turf project includes what it will take to provide stormwater management fully compliant with the law and adequate to ensure that large storms do not flood the CHS building or the Maplewood Plaza apartment building across Valley Street (see my platform plank on Ritzer Field);

Assurance that:

the gender-neutral restrooms at all schools originally contemplated (in the 2019 LRFP) were previously completed or are included in this round;

the “single-stall” changing facilities at CHS, SOMS and MMS originally contemplated were completed or are included in this round. (See my platform plank on LGBTQ+ rights.)

The district should also explain how projects for a new bond are being prioritized, what each project is expected to cost, how the work will be phased, and how construction quality and spending will be monitored. Cost estimates also need to reflect the realities of working in old buildings, including asbestos and other conditions that can quickly make construction more expensive. I also support independent oversight of construction quality and financial management for a major new capital program.

We cannot ignore the condition of our schools. We also cannot ask the public for tens of millions of dollars without a clear plan. If elected, I will support a responsible capital program focused first on safety, accessibility, and urgent building needs, while insisting on much stronger transparency and oversight.

Our schools are one of our community’s greatest investments. We need to protect that investment, address urgent needs now, assure our buildings are safe, accessible and welcoming to our students, and create a long-term facilities strategy that is sustainable, responsible, transparent, and focused on our students.