Colonial Nation,

I am reaching out with some updates about our progress with the Capital campaign.  As you know, we gathered feedback over the spring and summer from a variety of stakeholders to decide on the renovation projects that would be included in the campaign. These projects were developed into a Certificate of Necessity (CN) request that was submitted to the State for approval with the ultimate goal of bringing forward a capital referendum to the community.

At the November Board meeting, I shared with our Board members that the Department of Education (DOE) was unable to approve our CN because of the fiscal constraints that the State is currently facing. Without this CN approval, we are unable to move forward with a capital referendum unless we were to ask our taxpayers to pay the entire cost of the projects and forgo the State support, which would provide roughly 60% of the total funding needed. While we all know that our students deserve world-class facilities, it is the belief of the Board that Colonial taxpayers should also receive the benefit of the state’s investment in maintaining our public school buildings. Therefore, at this time, we are not moving forward with a capital referendum campaign this coming spring.

Our Board Members support the idea of submitting the request to DOE again next year and also asked us to work with our legislators to understand and address the fiscal constraints that prevented our CN and others to be denied despite the acknowledgment that the projects are critical for district operations.

We will begin to reassess and regroup around our next steps in the new year and we look forward to updating you on that work in the spring. We hope you’re able to enjoy the upcoming holiday season in good health and good company.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey D. Menzer, Superintendent