Details

• The Haddonfield School District and Borough have struggled to maintain the properties that they already have.  Adding an additional building to the existing building inventory now will merely exacerbate that problem
• The HSD’s purchase of a new building -- before the district has presented to the public the bond numbers to fix the buildings the district already has – puts the cart before the horse.
• Spending on a new building puts a ‘nice to have’ ahead of more pressing needs and expenditures such as attracting and retaining teaching staff and retaining and improving a wide array of coursework.  Not so long ago the district was talking about phasing out various arts and language courses due to funding issues.
• In addition to the purchase price, the new building will require significant renovations costing potentially many millions of dollars in union labor (prevailing wage) and other costs, and any tuition fees generated at the new building from pre-K will cover only a tiny fraction of such costs
• Haddonfield has become increasingly wealthier over the past ten years, and seniors, empty-nesters, and others without pre-K children should not be required to subsidize wealthy families who make the lifestyle choice to have both parents work.  Such subsidization was unnecessary previously even when the income demographics in Haddonfield were generally lower.
• Private institutions in Haddonfield already adequately fill the gaps in pre-K education (Friends School, etc.).  Those institutions will invariably suffer a drop in enrollment as a result of the new building and expanded pre-K, thereby jeopardizing the rich and diverse educational opportunities already available in Haddonfield and surrounding towns for pre-K students.
• HSD should instead redouble its efforts to secure additional, existing funding for lower-income families in Haddonfield who need assistance with sending their children to pre-K for some or all of the day.
• HSD is talking out of both sides of its mouth when it says that Haddonfield already has the best public schools in our entire region in terms of academics, standardized testing scores, and outcomes, but must now spend more on expanding pre-K education to improve outcomes.  The district should instead focus on low-cost and no-cost alternatives such as tamping down on the extreme grade inflation that characterizes the upper grades in the HSD.
• The proposal to add the former Kingsway site to the HSD’s portfolio is the typical sort of ‘wish list’ item that local politicians, school administrators, and ‘progressive’ school boards like to tout as improving educational outcomes.  However, there is no strong evidence that such improvements are truly needed or desirable in Haddonfield.  Haddonfield residents, some of whom already struggle to pay our particularly high local school taxes, should not be required to subsidize politics, resume enhancers for politicians and administrators, or the sort of ‘pay-to-play’ architects, builders, lawyers, financiers, and others who infest such projects in South Jersey.
• The idea of placing 400 children in this small old abandoned building, full of mold and water damage, is ridiculous.  Kingsway left after consulting two school architects and some commercial contractors. An architect and structural engineer in 2015 advised the building be torn down. Kingsway finally sold when they realized the value was in the land. The buyer allowed the property to further deteriorate, and is said to be negotiating with the BOE to pay his real estate taxes so that the BOE can submit an application to the Planning Board asking for a site plan and apply for a use variance for a school use . The school building has been abandoned since 2018 and is zoned for a single family zoning. It needs to be torn down.
• The school land and building size will not meet the building fire codes, and the BOE will ask for a waiver for fire and safety which will place the 400 students at risk since the basic school fire code cannot be met.
• The parking is insufficient to support the 40-50 staff, and the drop-off area of 400 students is not physically possible.The Bancroft land swap to give the BOE free land next to the high school was to renovate Cooley Hall for all-day kindergarten and the public school zoning and two existing access roads would support that location. The cost of over $13 million would be better invested in a newer building renovation on existing land the school board already owns and would not invade the neighborhood of Kings Highway west and surrounding neighborhood .
• The traffic congestion will create hazardous traffic conditions and cannot be solved because the location is in the residential zone and neighborhood of West Kings Highway which is a County Highway and no parking is permitted.
• With windows on only the north side, the majority of classrooms will be windowless–dangerous to both bodily and mental health–no escape in case of fire or other threat.  Many expert opinions on Google about “windowless classrooms” to seriously consider.
• The building at 144 Kings Highway West, originally constructed in 1966, to this day has an attractive facade.  But don’t be deceived, the interior is totally inadequate, even after investing multi-millions of dollars, for the use intended by the Haddonfield BOE.  The building, and a Franciscan convent on the same lot, were built as a private high school for girls which served 150 to 200 students taught by the nuns who lived in the convent.  In 1972 the private school closed, and shortly thereafter, the building became a school for special needs students, many of whom were bused in from surrounding towns. The building eventually came to be known as the Kingsway Learning Center with a population of about 80 students.  The convent became a separate private parcel of land and was converted to large apartments close to downtown.
• In 2018, Kingsway moved out the building, finding it costly to maintain and out of compliance with changing ADA standards. Under new ownership, the building sat abandoned for five years.  Property taxes were not kept up nor was maintenance.  The neglect resulted in water damage and mold.  While certain issues of neglect can be addressed and mitigated, what cannot be corrected, or corrected at exorbitant costs, is the lack of space for 400 students in a building designed for 200 students.  Also, the grounds will not accommodate the 40 to 50 parking spaces needed for staff and there are fire code issues arising from the lack of clearance on either side of the building.
• Because the building is for early education, kindergarten and pre-k, most students will be arriving by car, and many will be in car seats requiring parents to park and help the child out of the car.  Given the heavy rush hour traffic and ‘no parking’ restrictions on the adjacent Kings Highway, Chews Landing and Warwick Roads, the addition of hundreds of cars dropping off children will create safety issues and result in an impossible traffic nightmare.
• In today’s economic environment of supply shortages and inflationary pricing, how many major projects do you know that finish on-time and on-budget.  It’s a rarity in even better economic times.  But when you select, as the Haddonfield BOE has, the WRONG BUILDING in the WRONG LOCATION the financial risks are sure to grow.
• The BOE is desperate to proceed with the Kingsway project and almost blind to the many risks and issues inherent in such an undertaking.  Effective with January of this year the BOE has agreed to pay, up to a limit of $7,500 per month, the taxes and carrying charges on a property they do not own and which would normally be assumed by the seller. It causes some second thoughts about the BOE’s negotiating skills and just betrays how desperately the BOE wants the property.
• We, as taxpayers, really don’t know financial details yet, just some broad statement that we will save millions by rehabbing an existing building because the State of NJ will subsidize 30 to 35% of the project costs.  We are told there are no State subsidies on new construction.  At first glance that seems appealing, but will those savings ever be realized considering the growing cost of materials, construction contingencies on an old, non-conforming, poorly maintained property, and exclusively union labor on the WRONG BUILDING in the WRONG LOCATION. The financial risk should be a major concern for all of us.
• There are many options that parents currently use to provide their child with an appropriate Early Childhood Education.  In Haddonfield alone there are currently 3 schools that offer full day M-F PreK and Kindergarten: Friends School, Beechwood School and Christ the King Regional School. The First Presbyterian Church offers 4 half days M-F for PreK and also Transitional KIndergarten and Enrichment Kindergarten.  Haddonfield United Methodist Early Childhood offers 5 1/2 day M-F for PreK and Transitional Kindergarten.
• Other options located nearby are:  St. Rose of Lima on Kings Hwy in Haddon Hts offers a full day M-F Kindergarten and full day PreK M-F at their "Rosebud Academy".  Cherry Hill Montessori also offers Full Day PreK and Kindergarten M-F for parents selecting this education learning style.
• All these schools and many others have had successful programs for many years.  They also have excellent indoor and outdoor recreational facilities.
• Published letter to the editor:

The Haddonfield School District is determined to acquire the abandoned Kingsway Learning Center at 144 Kings Highway West and convert it into an Early Childhood Education Center. This is a misguided and costly mistake. The 50,000+ SF building was constructed in 1966 and is situated such that there is no street parking. The HSD’s intention is to rehab the seriously deteriorated building, abandoned as a school in 2018, and outfit it for 400+ kindergarten and pre-K children, recruiting non-resident tuition paying students.

Major issues abound. Traffic studies will show the impossibility of parents dropping off their children, many in car seats, at the school. Our youngest will be bused to Kingsway from their local school and returned later that day. The costs will be prohibitive. The scheme is awkward and desperate.

The school was originally built as a private girls school immediately adjacent to a large convent where the teaching nuns resided. The girls school closed in 1972 and Kingsway purchased the school for special needs students. Kingsway closed in 2018.  The school and the convent became two separate properties. The convent, which is perpendicular to Kings Highway, was purchased and converted into spacious private residences. The only way to utilize the parking area behind the school is to cut through the entire length of this now private apartment property using a single lane driveway. The District hopes to allow 30 to 40 cars drive in and out each day. It is a property and privacy invasion.

A better solution: Build New. In October 2021, Susan Kutner, Director of Facilities Planning for NJDOE, presented a comprehensive Long Range Facilities Plan to our BOE favoring a new, designed for early education, 20,000 SF building for Haddonfield children on the BOE owned 5 acre Bancroft land parcel. Ms. Kutner suggested cost for rehabbing a 50,000+ SF building will approximate the cost of new construction for a 20.000 SF new building, And many inherent Kingsway problems are solved.