Voters in Princeton approve $89 million school bond referendum
Voters Tuesday approved an $89 million bond referendum to fund improvements at the Princeton Public Schools in a special election. The results are unofficial.
“While there are still votes to be counted, on behalf of the Board of Education, and district administration, thank you to the voters of Princeton who supported the referendum. We appreciate the time all voters spent to learn about the projects and the proposals,” said Board of Education President Dafna Kendal. “After years of careful planning, we are confident that the projects approved in the referendum will benefit students by addressing capacity issues and making needed upgrades and repairs to the HVAC system at PHS. We are very excited that the community will benefit from $19.9 million in state debt service aid to help pay for these improvements.”
The funding will pay for improvements and renovations at Princeton High School, as well as expansions and renovations at Community Park Elementary School, Littlebrook Elementary School, and Princeton Middle School.
Question 1, for $37.9 million to fund the Community Park Elementary School expansion and renovations and Princeton High School’s end-of-life HVAC replacement and rehabilitation, passed by a vote of 2,075 to 1,317.
Question 2, for $38.3 million to fund the Princeton Middle School expansion and renovations and Princeton High School renovations, passed by a vote of 1,973 to 1,410.
Question 3, for $12.9 million to fund the Littlebrook Elementary School expansion and renovations, passed by a vote of 1,890 to 1,491.
Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello confirmed Tuesday night that all votes were in except for 99 provisional ballots, 11 ballots that need a “signature cure,” and any vote-by-mail ballots that have not yet arrived. Ballots must be postmarked by today to be accepted and must arrive by Monday at 4:30 p.m. to be counted.
It is highly unlikely that there are enough outstanding ballots to change the outcome of the election.
About 21% of the municipality’s 16,227 registered voters cast ballots in the special election.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
Great article, thank you
It’s odd that it appears 89 people decided to vote on the second and third ballot questions but abstained on the first ballot question. I wonder what’s up with that. Was the first ballot question placed in a weird position on the ballot?