All three questions, totaling $18.8 million for repairs and expansion to the high school, were shot down by voters, despite a promise of $4.1 million in aid from the state.
By: Cynthia Williamson
WEST AMWELL The mood was definitively somber for those who gathered in the South Hunterdon High School superintendent’s office after polls closed at 9 p.m. Tuesday for results on the district’s three-tier $18.8 million facility and expansion referendum vote.
Overall, voters in the school’s sending districts Lambertville, West Amwell and Stockton shot down all three questions.
Question one, which asked voters to fix the facility’s most basic needs and build a 14,800-square-foot technology and science wing for $11.1 million, was defeated, 968-857. If it had passed, the state would have allocated $4.1 million for the improvements.
Voters also had an option to approve additional expenditures: $3.9 million for a 510-seat auditorium/theater in question two, which was rejected, 1,107-717; and/or $3.8 million for a new 600-seat gymnasium to be built adjacent to the current gymnasium, which also was defeated in question three, 1,121-678.
Lambertville and West Amwell voters defeated all three questions while Stockton was clearly the sleeper in the Sept. 25 referendum vote, approving question one, 99-62, and question three, 82-78, and narrowly defeating question two by a single vote, 80-79.
It came as no shock West Amwell would give all three referendum questions a thumbs down. A majority of homeowners in the township were hit with significantly higher tax bills this year due partly to increased property valuations.
It was hoped that Lambertville would make up the difference, however, those votes never materialized.
A community that attracts thousands of tourists a year for its art exhibits and art galleries, soundly rejected the theater, art rooms and music rooms, 528-357.
The city’s voters also rejected question one, 472-421 and question three, 544-337, along the lines of West Amwell, which also rejected question one, 434-337, and question three, 499-259.
West Amwell voters also handily defeated a proposal to build a theater, 479-281.
Lambertville resident Dave Burd, who chaired a task force facilities committee, said "voters have spoken."
He said, "Now the school board will need to address how the students of today and tomorrow are going to be educated in a 40-year-old facility in dire need of repair."
Laurie Weinstein serves on the Lambertville and South Hunterdon school boards and said she was "surprised" her home community had not endorsed the referendum.
"I really believe our children’s education should be our number one priority," said Mrs. Weinstein, the mother of four boys, two of whom currently attend the district. "I’m really disappointed our technical and science classes will suffer because there are no proper facilities for it."
South Hunterdon Principal Harry Bell said he would make an announcement to students and staff first thing Wednesday morning that would go something like this: "Despite all your help, we weren’t able to pull it off."
Obviously deeply disappointed by the outcome of Tuesday’s vote, Mr. Bell said, only half-jokingly, grief counseling would be available to staff and students who had difficulty accepting the defeated referendum.
South Hunterdon Superintendent Cheryl Simone also was solemn, saying the "only ones losing here are the students."
"I thought we’d get something, at least question one," she said from the library where school board and referendum committee members gathered to mull the results. "I thought it was unimaginable we wouldn’t get question one when we’d be getting ($4.1 million) from the state."
Dr. Simone said the building needs to be repaired or it will "fall apart," but she isn’t yet sure what the school board’s next step will be. She said it will be discussed at the board’s regular meeting Oct. 18, or sooner, if it decides to schedule a special session.
Minutes before polls closed at 9 p.m. Tuesday, South Hunterdon school board president Alexander Meehan said West Amwell Township’s big turnout was an indication to him "people didn’t ignore" the referendum.
"It’s an important issue to the township; it’s an important issue to the school district," said the township resident. "That’s the most you can ask for."
Regardless of the outcome, Mr. Meehan said "people should be concerned about what happens with their children and what happens with their tax dollars."
West Amwell resident Kim Smith, who graduated from the district in 1981, said "nothing has changed" in two decades.
"I agree with what they want," she said, after casting her ballot. "I think they need it."
Ben Gross isn’t yet old enough to vote, but the seventh-grader who is new to South Hunterdon this year said the proposed improvements and expansion of the 7-12 grade school "would be nice."
"My father doesn’t want it to pass," he said, "because taxes would be too much."
Stewart Palilonis supported the referendum, saying, "We’ve had a free ride for 40 years, which was nice."
"But we need to get into the 20th century," the Lambertville resident said. "I hate to make it up all at once but that’s what it’s come down to."
When asked to give reasons why the referendum wasn’t popular with voters, Sam Fulginiti of IE Communications, Somerdale, N.J., a public relations firm the district hired to help it pass the referendum, said the "number one reason" referendums fail is tax impact.
He said economic uncertainty and the threat of war looming overhead also may have contributed to the outcome of Tuesday’s vote.
"Outside of that, it’s difficult to say why the referendum was defeated," he said. "Something has to be done with the school one way or the other because it can’t stay the way it is."