Officials may need to reschedule a $57.8 million school bond referendum for Edison Township scheduled for Sept. 30 because the vote falls on Rosh Hashanah.
Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, last week announced that she would ask Senate President Richard Codey to call the Senate into special session in order to pass emergency legislation that would limit school board officials from holding bond referendums on religious holidays. If passed in time, the proposed initiative would force the Edison Public School District to change the referendum to another date and also restrict elections from being held on religious holidays.
“It would be unconscionable for anyone to push ahead with the bond vote once they realized it would fall on Rosh Hashanah,” Buono said in a press release.
Voters rejected the borrowing proposal in late April by more than 300 votes, according to assistant business administrator Bill Muzzio. The size of the bonding plan has not changed as officials would like to expand five elementary schools, three middle schools, and two high schools to absorb growing enrollment.
Edison Township is located within Middlesex County and has an estimated 2007 population of 99,884, up from 97,687 in 2000, according to U.S. Census data.
