Lawrence Township board stresses academic goals and timeline for March 11 referendum to reconfigure middle school

The Lawrence Township Board of Education and district leaders gave an extended presentation on a planned March 11 referendum that would reconfigure grade bands and expand the middle school campus to add sixth grade and modernize aging facilities.

Superintendent Robin Klim told the board and public the reconfiguration is aimed at improving academic outcomes by aligning early childhood instruction (pre-K–2) and creating targeted small-group instruction in an updated middle school (grades 6–8). Klim said the current middle-school building is about 75 years old and needs upgrades and additions to address capacity, specialized instruction space, and life-skills and STEAM classrooms.

District leaders said the project would include a new community-lockout gym, a STEAM courtyard and life-skills classroom space, traffic engineering work for the secondary campus, and design elements intended to allow community rentals while keeping school security. The district also emphasized the project would be planned so the facilities tie older and newer sections of the building together.

Board Secretary Tom Eldridge (identified during the meeting as the board contact for documents) and other administrators addressed common questions about cost, tax impact and maintenance. Eldridge cited district audit figures showing roughly $7.5 million a year in maintenance spending, and told attendees that the tax impact on the average property owner would not begin until about 2027 under the project timeline presented. He urged residents to use the district’s tax-impact calculator and to enter assessed value (not Zillow estimates) when estimating individual impacts.

Officials said the referendum timeline, if approved March 11, would move to procurement and bidding in the following years; they repeatedly urged voters to attend the virtual town hall on Feb. 26 and to use the referendum web page (ltps.org) for source documents and FAQs. The district also offered in-person assistance for residents seeking original budget and audit documents.

Board members and administrators took time during the meeting to correct what they called misinformation circulating on social media. Administrators said preschool expansion and the district’s early-childhood plans are funded and planned separately from the middle-school referendum and are not contingent on the referendum’s passage. The district also reiterated deadlines for mail ballots (applications by March 3) and the town-hall registration process.

The presentation included a community-engagement component: an art contest tied to the referendum theme (see separate article) and plans to host community information sessions. Board members invited residents to inspect the posted audits and source documents; Tom Eldridge offered to meet with residents to review materials in person.

The board did not take final action on the referendum (the vote is a public ballot item), but members used the meeting to confirm public outreach steps, provide technical clarifications about maintenance and operating-cost comparisons, and restate the district timeline for construction and tax impact.