Point Pleasant Beach schools to ask voters for $23.9 million for facilities overhaul

POINT PLEASANT BEACH - A new athletics facility with a basketball court and turf field, a multipurpose room for community and school meetings, and major interior and exterior repairs to Point Pleasant Beach schools are part of a $23.9 million proposal that will be set before borough voters next month.

Point Pleasant Beach School District Superintendent William T. Smith said attracting year-round residents and families to the borough by offering top-quality educational facilities is part of the mission of the project.

"Over the last 10 years or so, I think particularly in this pocket of New Jersey, but I think it's really been throughout the country, we've seen that there's… emerged a competitive public school environment," he said in a phone interview with the Asbury Park Press. "Now, we have vocational programs that are county-supported. We have parochial schools, we have charter schools, we have schools that fall somewhere in between."

Smith said to compete and attract families to Point Pleasant Beach, the schools here must not only continue their history of high-quality education, but have sports, activities and facilities comparable to or surpassing those of surrounding districts.

"The referendum… it is to compete (against nearby schools), for sure," Smith said. "But it is a competition to draw residents to town, which is very much what the town (council) wants."

Rather than break projects up individually to be performed over several years, bundling them together will enable the school to be reconfigured like a "jigsaw puzzle," the superintendent said.

The nearly $24 million proposal would raise property taxes by about $35 on the typical home, according to district calculations.

The project would include:

• Building a Field House with an indoor basketball court and turf field

• Creating a multipurpose meeting room for physical and occupational therapy, music, staff training, and Board of Education and community meetings

• Security upgrades at both the high school and elementary school

• Replacing tennis courts with new tennis and pickleball courts

• Cleaning and repairing exterior and interior spaces of both buildings

• Installing a new surface for the running track

• Creating an inclusive playground

• Making new offices and staff rooms

Smith said the new spaces will provide areas for community groups to use as well as students.

"We think we've put together a wide, thoughtful and comprehensive proposal that will bring not just a range of new benefits to our students… but I think it opens up a whole door to our community, and to our senior citizens, in a way that we've never been able to do before," he said.

Fewer students

A challenge facing the district has been years of declining enrollment.

In the 2013-14 school year, Point Pleasant Beach schools enrolled 820 students, according to New Jersey Department of Education enrollment records. By last fall, enrollment had dropped to 669, a decrease of 18%.

About 100 of those students are from outside of the borough and pay tuition to attend, Smith said. The population of tuition students has remained steady, despite the decline in resident students, he added.

Some of the borough's challenges in attracting families stem from the vacation destination nature of many Jersey Shore coastal neighborhoods. In Point Pleasant Beach, about 60% of homes were occupied year-round as of the 2020 Census, according to an occupancy rate report prepared by the Ocean County Department of Planning. Yet, that's higher than the year-round occupancy rates of many of the town's neighbors, such as Lavallette (30%), Mantoloking (32%) and Bay Head (42%), according to the planning department.

Another challenge is an overall decline in birth rates over the past decade and changing demographics, which have led to a smaller school population over time in Point Pleasant Beach, Smith said. The 2008-2009 recession, Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and then the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led many prospective parents to put off having children, he said.

The superintendent expects that expanding the district's facilities will help to bring in students from this limited pool.

"We offer a high school program in our school of under 400 students right now that's comparable to a high school program that would be in a school of 800 or 1200 kids," said Smith. "That's not easily done. But it's a purposeful mission."

The school referendum, if approved by voters on Dec. 12, would help continue that mission, he said.

If approved, the bond measure would raise school taxes by about $35.25 per month on a house assessed at the municipal average of $569,391, according to school officials. Additional referendum information and a tax impact calculator is located on the school's website: https://www.ptbeach.com/.

"My job as school superintendent is to look 20 to 25 years down the road and position us in the best way possible, provide our kids with the best academic programs and facilities, (and) give the town that on a responsible financial ticket," Smith said.

The superintendent said he is also working to "ensure that the town's assets maintain the glow that is… respectful of what the town's history and expectations are."

Voting will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Point Beach Laurel Firehouse, 614 Laurel Ave., Point Pleasant Beach.

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Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 15 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Point Pleasant Beach schools: Funding for facilities improvements