Residents in Southampton voted down two ballot questions at their town election Tuesday — including an override advocates said would preserve school jobs.
Despite clearing the annual town meeting on May 6, an override question to raise $900,000 for the William E. Norris School came up short.
Amid rising costs of all kinds, officials previously said the K-6 school would need to shed or reduce at least eight positions unless more funding was provided.
During the town meeting, Hampshire Regional School District Superintendent Dr. Vito Perrone laid out some of the stakes if cuts were implemented.
“Core classroom instruction will be diminished and disrupted, increasing class sizes,” he told voters earlier this month. “Specials like art, music, PE and library time will be reduced, narrowing curricular activities. Special education staffing will be stretched, pressuring compliance and limiting student support. Literacy and math interventions to struggling learners will be scaled back, impacting student outcomes negatively. Essential support staff will be cut or reduced, limiting integral services.”
According to unofficial results, voters opted 998-926 against the override on May 20.
They also shot down a debt exclusion request related to a new public safety complex by a wider margin, rejecting it 1,389-518.
