District Answers AC Questions
And 1/2 day of school reminder for 6/1/22
Wed. June 1st is another early dismissal day:
The District will host one more early dismissal day on Wednesday (6/1).
Students will follow an early dismissal schedule.
PK: 1:50 P.M.
Elementary (Gr. K – 4) 1:25 P.M.
Grades 7 & 8: 12:25 P.M.
Grades 5 & 6: 1:05 P.M.
LHS: 12:10 P.M.
The District has received a few questions via email which have been directly answered, but we want to answer these questions for all of our families.
DO DISTRICT STAFF SEE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA QUESTIONS?
The following is posted on our Social Media Pages:
Please keep in mind our social media pages are for District one-way communication. Questions posed on social media are rarely responded to as they are not monitored for that purpose. You will see the following provided on the page:
If you have a question, comment, or concern, please directly contact a school district official via email or telephone: (856) 784-4071. As a standard District practice, staff members do not respond to inbox messages or FB posts.
All social media guests shall adhere to responsible and positive social media protocols. The purpose of this Facebook page is to provide one-way district communication, highlights, and district information with the community.
The District reserves the right to limit membership to this page and remove individuals who do not adhere to positive social media protocols.
Contact emails:
Superintendent Dr. Kristin P. O'Neil: koneil@lindenwold.k12.nj.us
Business Administrator Ms. Kathleen Huder: khuder@lindenwold.k12.nj.us
Director of Curriculum Dr. Marc Mancinelli: mmancinelli@lindenwold.k12.nj.us
Director of Special Services Adrienne McManis: amcmanis@lindenwold.k12.nj.us
(If you email us your question, you will receive a prompt answer.)
Why do we call early dismissal days for extreme heat?
Our District includes 5 buildings, and unfortunately, not all of them have air conditioning (AC) to condition the rooms and reduce humidity. At this point, our HS (built in 2001) has AC throughout the entire building. Our MS (originally built in 1939) has AC in 75% of the building, which was installed via a SDA building project in 2015. Both School 4 and 5 (originally built in the 1950's) have limited AC. Both buildings have AC in the 1990 additions to the buildings, as well as some other specific rooms that have been updated over the years. Lastly, our PREK has window AC units in all classrooms and the multipurpose room has AC.
The recent days of masks due to COVID and more extreme weather trends have put a larger strain on our ability to operate without AC. That is why the project has become a priority to the Board of Education.
Retrofitting or replacing Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Units (HVAC) is a very expensive project. The current budget to fully complete the AC at the Middle School, School 4 & School 5 is approximately $15 million. Installing AC in all of these buildings remains a long-term goal for the Board of Education, and they were very pleased to be able to complete the large HVAC project at the MS in 2015, which retrofitted about 75% of the building with HVAC equipment.
We are currently in the process of applying for grant funding to be able to finish the MS HVAC project and then to begin our elementary schools HVAC projects.
Unfortunately, we are bound by our budget constraints and have been an underfunded District for many years. The good news is that the state has made legislative changes that have been reallocating funds from overfunded districts to underfunded districts. We have received additional state aid over the past 2 budget years due to these changes. The Board will remain focused on appropriating any available funds as well as any available grant funds for the HVAC project and capital infrastructure needs of the District.
Why do you have to call an early dismissal for all buildings, if some have AC?
Transportation runs on a very tight tiered schedule each day for Lindenwold Public Schools. The buses that begin at the HS each morning and afternoon quickly move through their pickups/drop offs for both MS schedules, then elementary and then finishing at the PREK each morning and afternoon. Due to this schedule, we do not have the ability to change one schedule without changing them all. We are not unique in this situation, as the state of NJ requires that all schools tier their transportation schedules to operate as efficiently as possible.
Some people ask us, why would we spend money on a new building before "fixing" our current buildings?
The new building project is necessary due to overcrowding throughout the district. You may have noticed temporary classroom units now sit in the front of our Middle School. These units were installed last summer as we are simply out of room in this building. We are also overcrowded at the Elementary schools with all specials (music, art, computers) on a cart and no classrooms left to expand. The new building will allow us to move out of the leased PREK building and move our Grades K & 1 out of our current elementary buildings and then move Grade 5 back to our elementary schools. This project has been in the works for several years, and must be a priority as we can no longer fit into our Middle school and our Elementary schools are at maximum capacity.
In addition, the funding for the new building is not subject to our annual state aid funding but rather, requires the District to issue debt, similar to a mortgage. This debt will be paid off over the next 25 years. We are at the maximum of our debt threshold and so we were not able to increase the scope of our project to include HVAC at other buildings in this debt issue.
Please pose all questions here:
These emails are monitored very frequently.
Contact emails:
Superintendent Dr. Kristin P. O'Neil: koneil@lindenwold.k12.nj.us
Business Administrator Ms. Kathleen Huder: khuder@lindenwold.k12.nj.us
Director of Curriculum Dr. Marc Mancinelli: mmancinelli@lindenwold.k12.nj.us
Director of Special Services: amcmanis@lindenwold.k12.nj.us
This is the best and quickest way to receive a response.
