The Hopewell Valley Regional School District has updated the community on referendum roof replacement work throughout the district.
There have been partial roof replacement projects at Hopewell Valley Central High School (HVCHS), Stony Brook Elementary School, and Timberlane Middle School that began in late June after students exited school following the end of the school year, according to Heather Pyle, school district business administrator.
“At Central High School and Stony Brook Elementary the budget for the partial roof replacement was $2,826,365. The contracts that were awarded through competitive bidding process were a total of $1,917,758. That came in completed under budget,” Pyle said in a presentation to the school board and community on Oct. 12.
“At Central High School there was a change order for $371,469 which was required to remove and reinstall the existing solar panels in coordination with the roof replacement work.”
The combined total project cost for HVCHS and Stony Brook $2.3 million which was below the budget of $2.8 million.
For Timberlane Middle School’s partial roof replacement there was a budget of $1.86 million. Through a bidding process the project was awarded for $1.68 million.
“The final project cost remained at $1.68 million with no change orders,” Pyle added. “All three partial roof replacement projects were completed under budget resulting in savings compared with the amounts originally budgeted. This project may have come in under budget, however future projects depending on inflation and so forth other projects may not come in or come over budget.”
Pyle explained that the school district has savings from these partial roof referendum projects which would be able to be used moving forward for referendum projects that may come in over budget with increased costs due to inflation and fuel costs.
“This (savings) is a little bit of a padding for us with projects going forward,” she said.
The savings from the partial roofing referendum projects can only go towards projects that voters approved in the referendum and cannot be used for other projects outside of the ones in the referendum.
“So, for the next phase of referendum the Spring of 2027 roughly in March or April of 2027 we will start going out for competitive bid processing for some boilers, some HVAC projects as well as the additions and renovations to Toll Gate Grammar School as well as Bear Tavern Elementary School,” Pyle said.
School board officially approves shared service agreement with Hopewell Township for Bear Tavern project
The shared services agreement covers 20 years of annual payments toward debt service costs for the Bear Tavern building addition project.
Additionally, the township has increased the financial commitment to the expansion from an original $16.1 million to $20.7 million.
A building addition at Bear Tavern is estimated at about 19,000 square feet and would include 10 prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms, small-group rooms, restrooms and student services space.
The proposed expansion addresses increased enrollment in the school district and would eliminate trailers that have been used by students and teachers at the school.
Hopewell Township is using payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, revenue, from the Hopewell Parc development to fund the financial commitment. PILOTs are when property developers make annual payments to a municipality in place of traditional property taxes.
The township would begin making payments for the Bear Tavern building addition in 2027, with payments continuing through 2046. According to the agreement, the township would make a projected payment of $258,918 in 2027.
Each year, if the school district receives any state debt service aid for the Bear Tavern project, the township’s annual payment for that year will be reduced by the amount provided by the state.
The township would be able to use school district facilities outside of school hours free of charge. District use will take priority over township use, and the school board would have final authority to determine the location and time of use for any township request.
“I want to acknowledge the enormous amount of time and effort that was put in, especially on the part of our superintendent and our board president to work with the township to get them to allocate the money, which yes in one hand they always said they would out of the PILOT, but they were not legally obligated to do so,” Board member Alex Reznik said on Oct. 12.
“So that took an enormous amount of work, effort, and diplomatic skill. That’s going to provide a noticeable savings to the tax load the referendum represents.”
