Voters Reject Hillsborough $8.09M School Referendum

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — The results are in and Hillsborough voters have rejected the $8.09 school referendum on Tuesday.

A total of 4,483 people voted no (or 59.6 percent) while 3,039 people (or 40.4 percent) voted yes for the referendum. A total of 7,522 residents came out to vote out of the 30,931 registered voters or 24.32 percent of voters.

"Hillsborough Township Public Schools would like to thank everyone who voted in yesterday’s referendum. Our community spoke decisively not to raise taxes, and we appreciate and respect the outcome of the referendum," school district spokeswoman Kia Bergman said.

The referendum was intended to implement a full-day kindergarten program as well as lay out a plan for long-term financial stability in Hillsborough. If passed, it would have increased 2019 property taxes approximately $25 per month on the average Hillsborough home assessed at $389,300.

Hillsborough is one of three districts in Somerset County — Bridgewater and Montgomery are the other two — that only offers a half-day kindergarten program. Additionally, about 90 percent of districts in New Jersey have a full-day kindergarten.

The Hillsborough Public Schools had claimed the passage of the full-day kindergarten would help the district gain more funding from the state. Gov. Phil Murphy's administration recently released the proposed state aid numbers for every school district in the 2019-20 school year. Hillsborough is expected to see a 2.11 percent decrease in state aid. This means the district would receive a total of $24,399,824 or $526,434 less in state aid. (See Related: Hillsborough Schools Expected To See Decrease In State Aid)

The district had also claimed that if the referendum didn't pass, the number of teachers and staff would need to be considered as well as increasing class sizes.

The district would also be forced to contemplate increasing fees for students to participate in athletics and co-curricular activities, raising fees for technology, and eliminating programs that the Board could no longer afford, the district stated.

"We are in the process of finalizing a tentative budget for the 2019-2020 school year and invite community members to submit their input both at our upcoming Board of Education meetings, as well as through the district’s website," Bergman said.

A tentative budget will be presented at the March 18 Board of Education meeting, and the final budget hearing is scheduled for April 29. Both meetings will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Auten Road Intermediate School.

Have a news tip? Email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com.

Get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here.