WOODBRIDGE, CT — Woodbridge voters decide Tuesday, Oct. 13, whether to spend $118.5 million on a new Beecher Road School and a central office for the school board, a week after a special town meeting on the plan.
Beecher Road School Building Committee
The town meeting took place Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. in The Center Gymnasium, 4 Meetinghouse Lane, where the Boards of Finance and Selectmen, the building committee and its consultants presented the project. The town has posted the presentation and a full recording on the building committee's page. Under the meeting's call, the resolution now goes to the voters.
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, in the same gym. The ballot asks whether the town should appropriate $118.5 million for the school and central office and borrow, through bonds and notes, whatever grants do not cover. The new building would rise on the North Playground of the current campus and replace the existing school, according to the town's explanatory text.
Two rules in that text matter to voters. Under the town charter, the resolution passes outright if yes takes at least two-thirds of the ballots. If the yes side wins more than half but less than two-thirds, the town holds a second vote on a later date, where a simple majority decides. Half or fewer and it fails.
Absentee ballots will not be mailed for this referendum. Because of its timing, state law requires voters, or a designee the law allows, to apply in person at the Town Clerk's Office, 11 Meetinghouse Lane, and no absentee ballot can be issued once the polls open Oct. 13.
The town's projections assume a state grant of about 53 percent, leaving about $55.5 million for Woodbridge to borrow; the explanatory text notes that estimate counts on about 6 percentage points in bonuses the town has not yet secured. The Post's earlier story has the selectmen's 4-2 vote and the plan's background.
Amity Regional Board of Education
The regional school board was scheduled to meet Monday, Oct. 5, at 6:30 p.m. at 25 Newton Road. Its agenda listed the monthly financial statements, a special education update, possible action on budget transfers over $3,000 and a second reading of a policy on electronic resources and generative artificial intelligence. Minutes had not been posted by Friday, Oct. 9.