North Penn voters have voted against a referendum to expand North Penn High School, writes Dan Sokil for The Reporter.

Superintendent Todd Bauer says that renovations on the high school will now proceed without moving the ninth grade over from the middle schools in the North Penn School District.

School board members and administrators have expressed disappointment in the defeat of the referendum which would have authorized $97 million to be borrowed for the renovation and expansion of the high school.

If approved, it would have meant a tax increase.

“The only way you can respond at this point is that the community has spoken,” Bauer said on Wednesday morning after vote results were tallied.

“We’re going to move forward, starting right now. The votes were roughly 42 percent to 58, so that’s clear. And that’s OK, that’s how things work: we left it up to the community, they spoke, and here we are,” he said.

Christian Fusco, school board vice president, said in a statement, “I am disappointed in the outcome of yesterday’s referendum, but I accept the result. The voters spoke loud and clear. Ninth grade will remain in our middle schools and our high school will maintain the same 50-year-old footprint for decades to come.”

Read more about reactions to the North Penn referendum in The Reporter.

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