It seems simple enough. If you vote yes, $50 million will be spent on a middle school ($13.2 million from this year's question plus $36.8 of the $39.6 million that was approved for it back in 2004).

But, what if you vote no? If you vote no, there are a number of alternatives the school board could consider. A few of the options to consider are: the school board could come right back with the same question again later in the year; the school board could wait for more information from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on approvals and come back later in the year for $2.5 million less and complete the project on Ellisdale Road, or the school board could come back in the fall seeking only the land required for the middle school on the Breza site and thereby reduce the total amount needed. Or, the school board could vigorously investigate all options and projected facility needs. It could update the demographics study. Without this essential data, our needs cannot be accurately measured. This important piece of information should have been dealt with immediately after the school board knew that the construction would be delayed three years. The school board could determine what the impact of building a middle school does to our options in regard to our high school partnership with Millstone.

The school board could expedite a regionalization analysis (ask the governor, Legislature and local officials for immediate help). Regardless of the outcome, we need a better answer than "it takes a long time to do an analysis." If the districts decide to merge, then the residents of Millstone finally get an equal footing with the residents of Allentown and Upper Freehold in the decisions of the high school. We could eventually be asked to foot an estimated $50 million for our share of a new super regional high school. This could result in the conversion of the current high school into our new middle school. We could decide to go it alone. Go out and build that $100 million high school on our own and preserve our flexibility to handle our future growth by keeping all of the prekindergarten through eighth-grade students on the present campus. At first glance this might seem outrageous, until you actually compare the cost to the path the board is taking us down: $50 million for a new middle school, plus we are likely looking at another $25 million in two years for a new primary school (because the elementary school will still be over capacity when the middle school opens in fall 2010) and then they will have to come back again two or three years after that to deal with the lack of space at the high school. I dare not hazard a guess how much that will cost. Add it all up and it doesn't seem like a new high school is really much different in total cost, and that makes it worth being given serious consideration.

The community deserves more information to make a thorough, efficient and educated decision on our future and that of our children.

Robert Cheff

Allentown