The story of Hillsborough Township's Amsterdam School begins more than seven years before students first entered the building with the 1983 passage of a state law allowing schools to finance construction projects through "lease-purchase". Previously, major building projects required a voter-approved bond issue. Lease-purchase, however, only required approval by the local school board and the state Department of Education. In this type of financing, a construction company completes and owns the improvement - often including an entire school - then leases it back to the school district for a length of time until the purchase price is paid off.
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| 9 October 1988 Courier News |
After the Hillsborough school budget failed at the polls in April 1988, board members were nervous about a $4 million bond referendum for improvements and additions at several schools - including major improvements of high school athletic facilities - set for May. Notably absent in the referendum - which passed by a 2-1 margin - was any money to build a new elementary school in the Blackwell's Mills section of the township, even though one had been contemplated for some time.
It seemed like every school district in central New Jersey was getting into the lease-purchase game that year - but not without plenty of controversy. Taxpayers, dismayed that construction plans were being contemplated without voter approval, objected in many towns. Improvements in Passaic Township and at Hunterdon Central High School were held up for months and years while the courts got involved.
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| 3 September 1989 Courier News |
It was against this backdrop that Hillsborough submitted plans to the state in January 1989 for the 600-student, 58,000 square foot school on an as-yet-to-be-built road that would share its name with the school - Amsterdam. After the state sat on the plans for 5 months with no approval in sight, the school board found a way to move the plan forward by changing the status of the lease-purchase from "passive lessor" to "active lessor", which would allow construction to begin while the state was still reviewing the plans.
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| 31 August 1990 Courier News |
School board members warned that if the school - which was expected to take 14 to 18 months to complete - wasn't ready by September 1990, there would be 200 students in Hillsborough without seats for the 1990-91 school year. Amazingly, the school was completed on time, and, despite some initial complaints about widespread redistricting, was praised all around.
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