Lambertville Public School Referendum Passes By Just 2 Votes

LAMBERTVILLE, NJ — One of the key local issues in the 2021 general election was a referendum put forward by the South Hunterdon Regional School District that would fund renovating the Lambertville Public School into a district PreK-4 school and building a new 5-8 school on the high school campus.

Official results, as shared by the Hunterdon County Board of Elections, have the referendum passing 1,773 to 1,771.

In Lambertville, voters approved the measure 1,230 to 688, according to unofficial results from the Hunterdon County Board of Elections. But votes against took the day by a significant margin in West Amwell, with 1,002 against and 381 for.

Stockton voters voted in favor of the referendum, 162 to 81.

The district said the $33,412,000 plan would ultimately cost taxpayers in the district $26,648,006.80, since the project would receive $6,763,993.20 in state aid. The changes respond to several reports from outside consulting agencies, from whom the district learned that the Lambertville and West Amwell schools are not in compliance with federal ADA accessibility requirements and have heating and cooling issues, inadequate space for special education classes, undersized and outdated music and art rooms, undersized and outdated libraries, energy management systems that need to be replaced, no gym at West Amwell, and safety and security needs.

The school board pushed for these changes to happen in 2021 in part due to current low interest rates, decreasing the measure's financial burden.

The significant difference in votes between West Amwell and Lambertville could be attributed partially to a feeling that the measure primarily benefits Lambertville, as suggested in a letter by the West Amwell Township Committee in October. In part, the memo's authors cited that the school district board includes five residents from Lambertville, three from West Amwell, and one from Stockton.

The committee said that while it normally refrains from speaking on school matters, it opposed the proposal because of “a significant amount of propaganda being disseminated by the Board and other municipalities" which it felt did not "adequately address the specific concerns and long-term consequences of this referendum."

South Hunterdon Regional School District shared a list of frequently asked questions and held several presentations on the referendum over the past months.

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