New Jersey voters on Dec. 12 approved school construction proposals totaling $139.9 million, making 2006 one of the most lackluster years for school construction.

During 2006, New Jersey saw the fewest number of school construction proposals and the fewest number of approvals since NJSBA began tracking referendum questions a decade ago. (See chart above.)

Voters this year approved 60.6 percent of the 52 proposals that school boards placed on the ballot, authorizing slightly more than $390 million—also, the smallest dollar amount of school construction spending that voters approved in any one year over the past decade.

In comparison, the most successful year for school construction proposals was 2003, when voters approved more than 78 percent of all referenda, authorizing a total of $1.42 billion in construction.