On Saturday, the Vote Yes to Invest committee, which is chaired by John Spiegelman, issued a thank you letter to the community following the May 20 referendum.
The unofficial voting results from last week’s primary election came out in favor of the construction of a new Abington Middle School.
Vote Yes to Invest’s letter notes that the Abington School District has “promised that the many steps that lie ahead will be taken in a transparent, accountable, public-facing way,” and that “it is incumbent on all of us to participate—by providing vital feedback, essential oversight, and support—to ensure that our investment yields the best return.”
Common Sense Abington, chaired by Joe Rooney, highlighted the 39 percent voter turnout and the narrow outcome: “Two percent more voters agreed to borrow $285,000,000 to build a new middle school,” the organization said.
“I want to thank everyone who worked with Common Sense Abington. We had three short months to raise awareness of this bond issue,” Rooney told Glenside Local. “We did a great job and forced the district to react to our efforts. If we had a couple more months we could have reached those last few hundred voters.”
Rooney went on to note that the “referendum says nothing about improving education in ASD.”
Rooney, who is in the running for a school director seat, said his current campaign’s focus “will be improving the educational outcomes for our kids, spending our taxpayers’ valuable dollars wisely and overseeing the administration’s performance.”
The full letter on behalf of Vote Yes to Invest is below:
To all of our neighbors in the Abington School District community:
After a rigorous election cycle; a robust turnout of ASD voters; and a close, clear, historic result, the Vote Yes to Invest team would like to say a sincere and heartfelt THANK YOU to EVERYONE who voted, either by mail or in person on May 20. Regardless of how you voted, your active participation pushed voter turnout in this odd-year primary to double that of most presidential-year primaries. Together, our community sent an important and inspiring message to folks throughout our county and our Commonwealth: When it comes to democracy, there is no such thing as an “off-year election.”
The votes have been counted in this very close election, and while our Vote Yes team is happy with the results, our message absolutely would be the same had the outcome been different: THANK YOU. We are deeply grateful that the Middle School referendum question inspired a prolific level of interest, engagement, and activism throughout all of Abington Township and Rockledge Borough. Folks tuned into and turned up at School Board meetings; had meaningful conversations with their neighbors, friends, and family; and helped spread the word about this significant referendum. Both the closeness of the vote tally and the unprecedented participation are a reflection and a result of our community’s investment and involvement. We can all be very proud of that.
What says even more about our community is the way that the overwhelming majority of neighbors approached the referendum. We all know how quickly public discourse can and often does devolve into misinformation, mistrust, and divisive ugliness. However, here in the ASD community, the calm, rational, “indoor” voices were the most resonant by far. Whether in face-to-face conversation, in the public comment periods of School Board meetings, or even on social media, residents discussed, debated, and sometimes agreed to disagree; but most did so with the commonly held understanding that we are all neighbors who want what is best for our community. This attitude of fundamental togetherness is often lacking in cable news broadcasts and viral videos, but it is one of many things that makes our ASD community a special place to live.
While the voter turnout for the Middle School referendum was indeed historic, the result itself was also groundbreaking for school districts throughout our Commonwealth. Prior to May 20, in the almost two-decade history of Act 1 of 2006, only 18 school funding referenda statewide had made their way to ballot questions, and all but two of those failed. In fact, only this past January a referendum in a nearby school district was defeated 58%–42%. This reinforced the prevailing attitude that any Act 1 referendum was doomed from the start, like a question that no one wanted to ask because the answer was foregone. The success of the ASD ballot question has shown school districts across Pennsylvania that with the right approach and with vibrant resident engagement, school funding referenda can have a fighting chance to succeed. With our vote on May 20, Act 1 has been transformed from an inevitable obstacle to a viable opportunity.
May 20 was the end of an intense election cycle, but it is only the beginning of the process of creating our new Middle School, and it is an open and resounding invitation for all of us to stay engaged or get involved for the first time. The School District has promised that the many steps that lie ahead will be taken in a transparent, accountable, public-facing way, and we look forward to that promise being fully and fruitfully kept. Now that our community has made the commitment to invest in our new Middle School, it is incumbent on all of us to participate—by providing vital feedback, essential oversight, and support—to ensure that our investment yields the best return. We, your Vote Yes to Invest neighbors, are committed to being every bit as active in the phases of this process as we were during the referendum, and we encourage everyone—no matter how you voted—to join us. Just as every vote clearly mattered in this election, every voice, and every neighbor, is important as our School District and our community move forward towards a better future for us all.
Once again, THANK YOU, ASD community!
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