The questions also will appear on the warrants at the towns' annual Town Meetings, but what happens next is unclear
Voters in West Brookfield passed the two debt exclusion questions for the schools in the Quaboag Regional School District, but voters in Warren shot them down.
Because the towns are part of the Quaboag Regional School District, voters in each community weighed in on the debt exclusion questions to fund technology and infrastructure improvements at the schools.
“The no vote in Warren does create a conundrum if you will,” Warren Selectman Robert Souza said after the results came in Tuesday night.
The questions also will appear on the warrants at the annual Town Meetings in Warren and West Brookfield on May 10. But what happens next is unclear, and Souza said selectmen will consult with the town’s attorney.
“If the town meetings go the same way, I think the decision becomes the School Committee’s,” said Souza, who blamed the failure of the questions on “voter confusion.”
The attorney also will attend the annual Town Meeting next week in Warren, he said.
Voters in West Brookfield were asked to approve debt exclusions to fund technology and infrastructure improvements at its elementary school, along with the Quaboag Regional Middle-High School, while Warren voters weighed in on the same improvements at its elementary school, as well as the middle-high school.
In West Brookfield, Town Clerk Sarah J. Allen said 160 voters supported the question for the elementary school, while 127 voted against it.
On the middle-high school question, Allen said the vote was 152 to 132. She said only 300 residents, or 13 percent, cast ballots, out of 2,284 registered voters.
In Warren, Town Clerk Nancy J. Lowell said 287 voted no on the elementary school question, while 184 voted yes. On the middle-high school question, the vote was 292 against it, with 179 in support. Of the 3,053 registered voters in Warren, 550, or 18 percent, cast ballots, Lowell said.
School Superintendent Brett M. Kustigian had said that after the Massachusetts School Building Authority gave the district an unexpected payout of $15 million last year, eliminating the final 10 years of payments on the middle-high school project, officials began looking into other potential projects to improve the schools. The school district has 1,500 students.
The debt exclusions totaled $2 million, or $1 million for each town. In a debt exclusion, taxes are raised beyond the limitations of Proposition 2 ½ only for the life of the project. Officials had said that if the questions pass at Town Meeting, they would be funded from the operating budget, and could affect services.
In Warren, the only race on the ballot was a five-year position for Planning Board; Melissa L. Sepanek of 542 Reed St. ousted Marc W. Richard of 88 Reynolds Road, 371 to 157.