Fairfax voters reaffirmed their support Tuesday for a long-debated proposal to spend up to $36.4 million on renovations and new construction at the town’s K-12 school.
A bond to fund the slate of projects at Bellows Free Academy-Fairfax passed narrowly — by just 33 votes — on Election Day last fall. But multiple residents then organized petitions, garnering about 200 total signatures, to put the bond up for a vote again, according to Scott Mitchell, who chairs the Fairfax School District board.
Mitchell said some residents wanted to have another vote because they didn’t think the district adequately informed voters about the bond the first time. The bond article wasn’t on the ballots that were mailed automatically to town residents last fall — voters had to request a separate ballot, or they could vote on the bond in person on Election Day.
Tuesday’s vote passed by a wider margin than the first go-around, with 946 residents supporting the bond and 880 opposing it, according to unofficial results Tuesday night. Overall, more people voted this time with 1,826 voters compared with 1,671 voters last November.
“We move forward from here and appreciate the trust from the public in support of the School,” Mitchell wrote in a text message after results were published Tuesday.
The bond is set to add five classrooms to the school’s elementary wing, two of them for pre-K students and three of them for third- and fourth-graders. Four new classrooms also would be added for middle and high schoolers.
The bond also includes renovated spaces for science, band and chorus classes; an enlarged cafeteria; new storage space for co-curricular activities; and new safety measures, such as a fire sprinkler system, upgraded elevators and a more secure entrance for middle and high school students.
School officials have said for years that major updates to Bellows Free Academy-Fairfax are badly needed, and that they’re running out of space in the building amid increasing enrollment, especially among elementary-age students.
But getting voters to agree has proven to be a challenge. Similar bond proposals in 2017 and 2019 both failed, though they included some big-ticket items — including an auditorium or a new gymnasium — that the most recent bond does not.
The district has estimated that this year’s 30-year bond would add $389 to the annual tax bill on a $200,000 home.