Brick's $12.5M School Security Proposal Fails By 40 Votes

BRICK, NJ — Forty votes. That's all that separated the Brick Township School District's proposal to spend $12.5 million on security improvements to all of its schools from defeat.

Finalized vote totals posted by the Ocean County Board of Elections for the Nov. 6 referendum show 12,885 no votes and 12,846 yes votes, a difference of 39 votes. To pass, it would have required 50 percent plus 1 vote.

The referendum asked whether voters would be willing to bond for the funds to pay for both physical changes that would have created vestibules that limited building access and technological ones that would have improved the ability of the district's staff and police to monitor the schools as well as the staff and students in them.

At the Brick Township Board of Education meeting Nov. 15, board President Stephanie Wohlrab said the board had not decided on a course of action. The vote totals were not finalized at that point, though it was apparent the outcome would be close.

Walt Campbell, a former board member, suggested the board consider breaking the proposed project into pieces and trying again.

The project was set to include $8.2 million in building renovations ranging a full office change to building new doorways and closing others.

The remaining $4.2 million or so was targeted an updated surveillance camera system, a lockdown system with multiple functions for everything from an active shooter alert to a fire alarm, and a visitor management system that would scan government identification and would allow building administrators even greater control over access.

The district received a grant of nearly $500,000 for security initiatives, but it's not clear how that funding will be used as a result of the defeated ballot question.

Victor Fanelli, a frequent meeting attendee, said trying to hold another referendum was a bad idea.

"The taxpayers already told you how they feel," he said.

A district-by-district breakdown by the Ocean County Board of Elections shows it isn't as clear-cut, however. There were 22 districts that voted yes on the question out of 57, and a few others that had fewer than 10 votes separating the two. You can take a look at the by-district breakdown below; it includes only votes cast at the polls.

Not surprisingly, voters along the waterfront, where homes generally have higher values and their owners pay more in property taxes, rejected the measure strongly. The barrier island vote, in District 26, was overwhelmingly against the proposal, with nearly 76 percent voting no.

In the area around Veterans Memorial Elementary and Middle schools and Brick Memorial High School, the vote was more strongly in favor, with District 47 voting 60 percent in favor and District 38 voting 58 percent in favor.

One district, roughly encompassing the area near Lake Riviera, wound up with a tie vote.

It's unclear where the provisional and mail-in ballots fit in geographically, but mail-in ballots were significantly in favor, with 2,016 yes votes to 1,451 no votes. Provisional ballots were similarly in favor, with 215 yes votes and 144 no votes.

You can explore the results below; information is from the Ocean County Board of Elections.

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Security cameras on display during a forum on the school security proposal for the Brick Township School District. Photo by Karen Wall, Patch staff