WINDHAM — Voters put their collective foot down on school spending yesterday, defeating a $2.1 million bond for a combined track/athletic field at the new high school.
The track proposal, Article 2, was defeated, 1,654 to 1,538. The article needed a 60 percent majority to pass because it was a bond item.
School Superintendent Frank Bass said he was disappointed with the outcome.
"It's too bad," Bass said last night.
The 50 students in the freshman and sophomore classes who are expected to participate in track and field next year will have to train in the high school's parking lot.
Bass said school district officials recognize that residents are struggling with job losses and other economic hardships.
Opponents of the track said earlier they objected to it being an add-on. They said it should have been part of the original high-school proposal.
In balloting, two new School Board members were elected. Ed Gallagher got the most votes with 1,587 and Jeff Bostic was second with 1,453 votes.
Gallagher said he looks forward to being a team player to solve hot issues in the district.
Bostic said he looks forward to bringing the new high school and its staff online and making sure all students are served by the school.
Incumbent Barbara Coish said she will run again next year and plans to be at all meetings. Coish got 1,162 votes in her failed re-election bid. Richard Forde trailed with 944 votes.
Friends and fellow board members hugged Coish and thanked her for her hard work. Coish hugged and congratulated Gallagher and Bostic.
Voters jettisoned another spending proposal, $800,000 to hire architects and engineers to design school renovations and construction. That article went down resoundingly, 791-2,306.
They were to focus their study on renovations to Golden Brook Elementary School and Center School, then bring a building proposal to voters next year.
That will not happen.
"Next year, there will be no major renovations," board member Mike Hatem said. Instead, Hatem expects district officials will bring another study proposal to voters next year.
Voters defeated the $40.5 million operating budget, 1,438 to 1,596. That means the district will operate under a default budget of $39.8 million, $656,422 less to run the district in the coming school year.
Two of the last voters to leave the polls said school issues motivated them to vote.
David Miller, whose children are in college, said the school track and athletic field, and the $800,000 building study proposal were especially important to him.
