Four of seven N.J. towns approve school bonding referendums

Voters in seven New Jersey municipalities went to the polls on Tuesday to vote in special school referendum elections where voter approval is required to issue school construction bonds where the state covers roughly 40% of costs through debt service assistance.

In Madison, three separate public questions were approved by wide margins to fund $79.4 million in renovation and upgrade projects.   A $49.4 million proposal passed with 76%, while additional bond issues were approved with 72% and 68%, respectively.

Voters in Montville rejected a $53 million proposal to improve and renovate four elementary schools by 335 votes, 55%-45%.  Because that initiative failed, a second question for security and other improvements could not win approval; it lost anyway, by 215 votes, 53%-47%.

A plan to spend $52.8 million on improvements in five schools in Mount Olive went down to defeat by 587 votes, 62%-38%.  A second vote on an additional  $9 million proposal lost by 839 votes, 67%-23%; that measure could only have been passed along with the first proposal.

Point Pleasant Beach voters rejected a $21.9 million referendum to upgrade schools as part of a plan to remove the existing Board of Education offices at one elementary school and construct new facilities, including an athletic field house, by a 66%-34% margin.

Voters in Pompton Lakes strongly supported a $5.7 million plan to renovate four schools; the referendum passed with 81.5% of the vote.

In River Edge and Oradell, a proposal to spend $18.7 million for renovations at River Dell Regional Middle School and River Dell Regional High School was approved by a 1,083 votes, 75%-25%.

Correction: an earlier version of this story mistakenly transposed the yes and no votes in Point Pleasant Beach.