Sea Isle City — Less than a month ago, the Sea Isle City Board of Education considered two options for putting a new roof on its Park Road school.

Now, it appears the board is down to one option and will be putting the project in the hands of voters. It is a scenario many on the board were hoping to avoid in a town where voters regularly defeat school budgets.

On Tuesday, March 3, the board held a special public meeting to explain and discuss options for replacing the roof, which has had numerous leaks for several years. Instead of the two options the board intended to discuss - a bond referendum and a lease-purchase that does not need voter approval - the board heard one of those options was basically off the table.

The problem is that the district, in the process of preparing the 2009-10 school budget, will not have the funds first expected to be available.

The school district qualified for a $360,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Education to put toward the project, estimated at $910,000. Those funds are not the ones in question. Instead it is funds from the school district’s budget surplus that are quashing the lease-purchase option. Without the excess surplus funds, the school board cannot provide an anticipated $330,000.

The district already has $190,000 in a capital reserve account, earmarked for the project. At the Feb. 17 meeting, board members were told they could anticipate another $140,000 in excess surplus to put toward the project. That would leave only $210,000 to be paid by new property taxes.

On Tuesday, however, school Business Administrator Diane Bitting told the board the anticipated surplus funds would not be there. Instead, the board would have to go to voters for about $400,000.

The property tax impact of the remaining $400,000 would be approximately $8 a year on a $500,000 house, for each of the next five years, according to bond counsel Ronald Ianoale.

“To be certain the money is not there, I recommended the board wait until they have the tentative budget so they can see all the figures,” Bitting said. “This is not dependent on what the district receives in state aid. I told the board, if you are using the surplus from last year, and spending our budget almost totally this year, that doesn’t leave more surplus. There will be much less surplus to appropriate into next year’s budget, even if the state aid remains the same.”

Bitting’s recommendation was for the board to wait until its regular March 17 meeting, where it will have to vote on a preliminary 2009-10 budget to be submitted to the county office on the following day.

“When the board members see the actual numbers, and we have the preliminary budget at that meeting, it will be clear then if there is money for the roof or if there is not money,” Bitting explained.

If the public referendum option is chosen, it would go to voters as a separate referendum question on April 21, when the public votes on the school budget and board members. If the question is defeated, the board could put the question out to voters a second time, but that could happen no sooner than in the fall, as there are only specific dates when referendums can be held.

The board was hoping to have the roof replacement done this summer.

Ianoale explained to the board in February that, if the project was put to a referendum and failed, the timetable for the work being done would likely be between one and two years.

Bitting told the board in February that, when a walk-through was done by the county Superintendent’s office during the board’s QSAC evaluation, the district was told the repairs needed to be done.

The board delayed making a final decision on whether to put the question to a public referendum until its March 17 meeting. That meeting, starting at 6 p.m. at the elementary school, is open to the public. Appropriately, the meeting will take place in the multi-purpose room, where a majority of the leaks appear to occur.