Princeton Voters Approve $89.1M School District Bond Referendum

PRINCETON, NJ — Residents in the municipality on Tuesday voted to approve the $89.1 million bond referendum put forward by the school district.

Unofficial results from Tuesday night showed that all three questions on the ballot were approved by the residents.

Voters had the choice to approve one question and reject the remaining two.

Question 1 had to pass for Question 2 to go into effect, and Questions 1 and 2 had to pass for Question 3 to go into effect.

Here are the questions:

• Question 1 will expand and renovate Community Park Elementary School, and improve and replace end-of-life HVAC systems at Princeton High School. The estimated project costs are $37.9 million. After an estimated $11.4 million in debt service aid is applied toward the costs, the average annual tax impact is around $222.

• Question 2 will expand and renovate Princeton Middle School and renovate the high school to create more instructional space. The estimated project costs are $38.3 million. After an estimated $18.5 million in debt service aid is applied toward the costs for both Questions 1 and 2, the average annual tax impact for projects in both questions is around $447.

• Question 3 will expand and renovate Littlebrook Elementary School. The estimated project costs are $12.9 million. After an estimated $19.9 million in debt service aid is applied toward the costs for all three questions, the average annual tax impact for projects in all questions is around $532.

On Wednesday morning, Dafna Kendal, president of the Princeton Board of Education, released a statement thanking the voters for approving the referendum.

“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,” Kendal said.

“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.”

All estimated tax impact figures presented by the school board are based on a home assessed at Princeton’s average of $853,136.

Just last week the high school had to close early as there was a leak in the HVAC system.

“This outcome shows that voters understand that the continued success of Princeton Public Schools is vital to the community,” Interim Superintendent of Schools Kathie Foster said.

“With these improvements, our district can prepare for growth and prioritize the neighborhood elementary schools and innovative educational experiences that our community values.”

Out of 16,227 registered voters in Princeton, 3,394 cast their ballots - 1,411 voted on election day and 1,411 residents voted via mail-in ballots, according to the unofficial summary report from Mercer County Prosecutor's Office.

2,075 voters, or 61.17 percent, voted yes on Question 1, and 1,317, or 38.83 percent, voted 'no'.

Question 2 got 1,973 or 58.32 percent 'yes' votes and 1,410 or 41.68 percent 'no' votes. For Question 3, 1,890 or 55.90 percent voted 'yes' and 1,491 or 44.10 percent voted 'no'

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