SOUTHAMPTON — Voters in Tuesday’s town election have rejected a $718,467 override to fund school and municipal expenditures.
A large majority of Southampton residents voted against the proposed Proposition 2½ override, defeating it with 798 votes against and 478 votes in favor. Voters were split on two other smaller debt-exclusion overrides. They rejected one for a new dump truck with a vote tally of 676 against and 590 in favor, but narrowly accepted another for a bike and pedestrian path with 648 in favor and 617 opposed.
Also on the ballot Tuesday were six candidates running for three Select Board seats. Official results were not yet tallied when the Gazette went to print Tuesday evening.
The rejection of the $718,467 override means that the schools will need to lay off a full-time reading interventionist and a full-time paraprofessional, School Committee Chairman Jon Lumbra previously said.
Lumbra has said that other cuts would include reducing the hours of two school nurses and a school psychologist, cutting a music teacher position to one day a week, reducing a planned full-time math interventionist to a part-time position and cutting 25 days from an assistant principal position.
The override would have also provided additional funding to the town’s police department, fire and EMS services, highway department, library, council on aging, Select Board, administration, town clerk and other municipal services.
The override would have increased the town’s tax rate by $0.88 to $16.85 per $1,000. For the average residential property, which is assessed at $325,958 in Southampton, that increase would have added $287 to the tax bill.
The approval of the debt-exclusion override to fund the bike and pedestrian path will allow the town to pay the costs of acquiring the right of way for the property.
The 3.5-mile stretch of railbed would run from the southern terminus of the Manhan Rail Trail to Route 10 near Sheldon’s Ice Cream. It will provide a link from the Manhan trail to Westfield’s Columbia Greenway.
Voters in Southampton have had a mixed record on such overrides in recent years. In 2019, they passed three to fund a $1.6 million bond for the East Street Bridge, a $250,000 bond for a new plow truck and a bond for repairs to Norris Elementary School. In 2017, though, voters declined a $110,000 override request to add staff and curriculum materials to Norris.
Staff writer Jacquelyn Voghel contributed reporting to this article.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.