Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • December 25, 2013 Midland Park State awards $3.18M grant for facility upgrades The Midland Park School District will be receiving more than $3.18 million from the state Department of Education to make upgrades to its school buildings. The funds, from the NJDOE’s School Facilities Grant Program for Regular Operating Districts (RODs), will cover 40 percent of the Very merry! $7,966,532 in Level 1 facility projects that were approved by the state. “We’re very happy that the state agreed with our needs assessment for facility upgrades,” said Board of Education President William Sullivan last week. “Based on what sur- Midland Park’s Santa was game as these three friends shared his lap to make their requests during the town’s recent tree lighting festivities. Several hundred youngsters attended the event, which included live music, refreshments, activities inside a heated tent, and a train set up at Memorial Library. rounding districts were awarded, we are fortunate to receive approval for such a large number of projects. The taxpayers of Midland Park will see significant savings for the cost of these upgrades, and we have a window of 18 months to take advantage of these grants,” Sullivan added. When the district applied for the grant last spring, Busi- ness Administrator Stacy Garvey said all the items that were included in the referendum defeated by the voters in December, 2012, except roofs and boilers, were submitted for evaluation to determine their eligibility for the grant. Since the referendum defeat, the bulk of the roof work has been completed with funds from the board’s operating budget or surplus and $995,075 approved by voters for that purpose in last April’s school election. According to Sullivan, the projects approved for funding under the ROD grant break down as follows: $4,216,000 for Midland Park High School and $3,750,000 for Highland and Godwin schools. The scope of the work includes exte- rior doors and windows, plumbing and HVAC upgrades, electrical service upgrades including lighting, fire alarm, intercom and public address system, flooring replacement and other items at all three buildings. He stressed all the numbers released by the state are tentative at this point. Sullivan said it is now up to school trustees to determine how to fund the $4.8 million which makes up the 60 per- cent share of the costs. He said the finance committee will look at all funding options and make recommendations for approval by the board as a whole. He said options could include a referendum, allocating moneys in next year’s operating budget, and appropriating surplus (if any) from the current year’s budget, among other choices. The ROD grant program allocated $455 million left over from previous state bond issues to fund about 40 per- cent of renovation and construction projects in school dis- tricts previously ineligible for such grants, which had gone to poorer districts. Health and safety projects received top priority.