BENNINGTON - Voters will be asked for a third time on Jan. 3 whether they wish to authorize the Prudential Committee to close the public elementary school and lease the building to the independent Village School of North Bennington.
The Prudential Committee set the re-vote date Tuesday morning, one week after a petition signed by about 130 residents asking for a reconsideration vote was submitted to the district clerk.
The reconsideration vote will ask the same two questions that passed by 26 and 47 votes on Oct. 23. Because a petition with more than the required 84 signatures was returned within 30 days of the vote, the Prudential Committee is required to hold another special vote.
In order to overturn the board authorization to close the school and lease the building there must be a majority of voters who vote against the articles, plus at least two-thirds the number of people who voted in favor of the articles in October must vote against them this time around. The question to lease the building passed by a wider margin than closing the school (Even though the two questions are contingent on one another) with a vote of 304-257, so in order to overturn that question at least 202 voters will have to vote against leasing the building, and less people must vote in favor.
The requirement to have two-thirds the number of people vote in favor of overturning a decision was made law in 2007, so a considerably smaller number of voters could not overturn a decision made by a larger group.
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