Most school referendum votes pass, but Dover, Little Falls, Saddle Brook reject spending plans

New Jersey has four separate election days each year set aside for local school boards to seek voter approval of school construction proposals.  The state will fund at least 40% of eligible costs through annual debt service aid under the Educational Facilities and Construction Financing Act of 2000.

In Wall, two referendums for a total of $66,599 in improvements to public schools in Wall were approved by voters on Tuesday.   One initiative for $55,911,196 passed with 65% of the vote, and one for $13,520,475 passed with 58%.

A referendum in Berlin to spend $19,699,285 on school repairs passed with 54% of the vote.

Voters in Folsom passed a ballot initiative to spend $3,892,819 on school improvements and upgrades by what appears to be 78% of the vote.

In Stanhope, a referendum for improvements to the Valley Road School passed with 72% of the vote, authorizing the Board of Education to spend $5,985,000.

Little Falls voters rejected a school bond proposal by 221 votes, 58%-42%.  The school board wanted to spend $29,563,225 on renovations and improvements to two elementary schools.

Voters in Dover overwhelmingly rejected a $69,263,500 proposal to build a new middle school on the Dover High School campus by 648 votes, with 72.5% of the electorate voting no.  The state would have paid $8,056,803 of the cost.

In the Hanover Park Regional school district, which includes East Hanover, Florham Park and Hanover, voters approved a $44,349,835 bond referendum for improvements at two high schools by 314 votes, 55.5% to 43.8%.

In Watchung, a plan to spend $12,807,985 referendum to upgrade heating and air conditioning systems at one elementary school and middle school leads by a narrow 19-vote margin, 382 to 363, with an undetermined number of provisional ballots and late-arriving vote-by-mail ballots still to be counted.  A second initiative to spend $2,926,503 is losing by 9 votes, 366 to 375.

Saddle Brook voters said no to borrowing $58,659,287 to make repairs and improvements of school facilities and athletic fields.  All three public questions were defeated by margins of close to 2-1.

This story was updated multiple times this evening.