Page 6 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • October 13, 2010 Franklin Lakes School district receives AA+ credit rating by Frank J. McMahon The Franklin Lakes Board of Education recently announced that it has received a AA+ credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, which has helped the district reduce the interest expense on its debt. “This strong rating helped the district cut $422,611 in interest expense over the next decade by refinancing $6,499,000 of existing bonds issued for the renovation of the Colonial Road School in 2003, as well as new construction at the Franklin Avenue Middle School and the High Mountain Road and Woodside Avenue schools that same year,” said School Business Administrator Michael Solokas. Solokas said the savings realized from this refinancing will be used to reduce the property taxes required to meet the school district’s expenses. In April 2002, borough voters approved a $15.6 million referendum to fund the new construction. The state contributed $3.6 million, leaving a cost to local taxpayers of $12 million. Since then, that debt has been reduced to the $6.5 million that is now being refinanced. When enrollments were dropping in 1996, the board of education sold the Colonial Road School to the borough for $1.6 million by allowing it to assume the district’s annual debt expense for the property, which contains the 35,000 square foot school building. The borough then leased about 27,000 square feet in the school building to the Barnstable Academy, granting a 10-year lease that was to run through 2006. The 8,000 square foot balance of space in the building was used by the borough’s recreation department for teen and adult programs. The terms of the contract with the borough allowed the board of education to buy the property back from the borough at $1.6 million, or whatever the property value was in case it was lower, 10 years after the purchase with a twoyear notice of the board’s intent to repurchase the building. However, in 2002, the school district repurchased the 12acre Colonial Road School from the borough due to growing enrollment in the K-8 district. Once the board of education repurchased the Colonial Road School from the borough, the site was prepared for construction. That construction project included adding 30,000 square feet to the 35,000 square foot building, and completely renovating the interior of the existing school. The new construction at that school included new classrooms, two pre-K classrooms, and one additional kindergarten classroom that was added next to the two existing kindergarten classrooms to create a kindergarten “pod.” The rest of the addition included a lunch room, a music room, a computer lab, resource rooms, a science lab, a choral music room, and special education rooms. Four classrooms were added to the Franklin Avenue Middle School and a television communication facility was constructed in a renovated classroom in the existing building. In addition, heating, ventilating systems, and electrical upgrades were completed at the High Mountain Road and Woodside Avenue schools, and a new school office was constructed within the current office at Woodside Avenue School. Kidney (continued from page 5) donation. “Three and a half months later, and after about 25 different tests, I was deemed a match,” Graham said. It was only then that he advised his wife that he was going to donate his kidney to Segal. On Thursday, April 9, Segal and Graham went to the hospital for the operation. Graham was in surgery for about two and a half hours, while Segal spent six hours in the surgery room. On Saturday, April 11, Graham went home and responded to a customer of his plumbing company who called to say a toilet needed to be fixed that day. He was back at work the following Monday. He said the only pain he experienced from the operation was when he coughed. Segal is fully recovered from the transplant, although he lost a leg a year ago unrelated to the transplant and is just now getting a permanent prosthesis. He said he is walking again and back to work. “He gave me life. He really did,” Segal said. “I haven’t felt this good in 20 years. I am truly a miracle. Every morning I get up and look in the mirror and say, ‘Oh my God, I’m still alive.’ This man, (Graham) he’s one of God’s angels. I’m not a religious person, but he is absolutely an angel. He calls me every day to ask how his kidney is doing and when he comes to my house I stand up and he hugs me and I cry. It’s very emotional. It’s very deep. It’s unbelievable.” Graham was a U.S. Navy pilot during the Vietnam War flying planes from (continued on page 10)