Board weighs surveying students on lowering school‑board voting age to 16

The Hopewell Valley Regional School District's government and community relations committee described a three‑pronged agenda on Jan. 6 that includes a municipal initiative to explore lowering the school‑board voting age to 16.

Committee members proposed drafting and distributing a survey to central high school students to measure civic interest and preparedness. "The goal would be to reach out, in March and to ideally this year have a meeting with them to actually be able to chat with them about what we would be using the dollars for," a committee speaker said while describing broader outreach work.

Board members debated whether surveying only high‑school students would produce representative data. One board member warned that asking high‑schoolers if they want the vote could produce a one‑sided result; another argued for collecting data from the affected population first and then designing education and readiness supports.

The committee also reported parallel plans for an FY27 state budget request focused on mental‑health resources and a county cultural performance partnership with Young Audiences; the cultural event scheduling remains in flux because of venue availability.

Next steps: the committee will finalize a survey instrument and aims to have initial data before the February board meeting; members emphasized that this stage is exploratory and that later steps would include education and community engagement if the data supports further action.