Letters To The Editor: May 5

Here are today’s Letters to the Editors…

Submitted by Middletown resident and Neshaminy School Board candidate Paul Murdock:

The recent mailer from Neshaminy School District explaining the current “Road Map to the Future” raises more questions than it attempted to answer. One page of the mailer states “Facility restructuring will directly result in staff and operational savings of approximately $1.9 million annually.” Yet, the next page states that the estimated annual savings will be $1,489,698. Which is correct? And what about the maintenance cost the district will still incur with being a “Landlord” to the Bucks County Intermediate Unit at Samuel Everitt Elementary School? Are the maintenance costs for other schools they plan to close factored in to their proposed savings too?

The savings numbers presented by the board also don’t take into account the ADDITIONAL $400,000 we will be paying each year for the bonds taken out to build a new school, nor the increased transportation costs.

The current board has moved forward with plans to take out bonds totaling $82.4M to build a new school, upgrade three schools, and restructure old debt, and they claim that these plans will not raise taxes and will not add to taxpayer burden. Proponents of the plan go so far as to say that this new building and upgrades to other buildings are all happening at “zero cost to the taxpayer.”

However, over the life of the new bond, Neshaminy will pay nearly $225M in interest and principal payments. How can anyone logically think that the additional $142M being paid over the life of the bond is a “deal” or “will not increase taxpayer burden”? What happened to the zero cost to the taxpayer? This is nothing more than a dishonest sales tactic, where a salesperson only talks about a monthly payment, instead of the overall cost of the deal.

Regarding the proposed Guaranteed Energy Savings Act (GESA) building upgrades, the district claims it will save $21M over the next 23 years if we upgrade buildings now. However, this requires an investment of $20M today. With all of the financial difficulties facing Neshaminy now, shouldn’t our board be focused on projects that will deliver a greater return in a shorter amount of time?

Given all of the questions surrounding the plan of the current board, how can we trust any of the information they are providing?

Do I think it is wise to restructure high debt with lower interest bonds? Yes.

Do I think that our schools need upgrades? Yes!

Do I think there are other ways of achieving the same goals without having to pay for this over the next 23 years? Absolutely! The question is how do we do so in a smart and efficient manner.

We need a more comprehensive plan that looks further into the future and delivers return sooner than 23 years from now. This plan must also include not only stabilizing our energy consumption, but turning our buildings into revenue generating assets.

Neighboring districts are installing geothermal systems to reduce energy costs, and are doing it with state grant money. Solar panels, on average, produce 80% of any given facility’s energy consumption, and have a return on investment of about 5 years. Another district is moving to propane-powered buses that are expected to save up to $2.5M in fuel costs over the next 7 years. Why aren’t we having these types of conversation in Neshaminy? Why aren’t we using a grant writer to secure funds to invest in our assets? This is an example of how we start to move forward with a more comprehensive plan.

The road map of the current board involves incurring tremendous debt, putting our fifth graders into middle school, continuing to ignore the pension funding issue, and essentially puts us in the same place we are now when it comes to utilization.

It’s time to change the conversation in Neshaminy and actually address the real issues and opportunities.

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