Glen Rock Schools to Close for Next Election

The Glen Rock Board of Education approved a district calendar for next year that includes a day off Nov. 4, when voters will be using the buildings as a polling place, according to a report by The Glen Rock Gazette.

“While preparing the calendar, the matter of Election Day was paramount in my thinking as a direct result of our experience this past year,” said Superintendent Paula Valenti, according to the report.

During the gubernatorial and local council election last year, Hamilton School, where polling takes place, received a phone threat that prompted the early dismissal of students and the disruption of voting for almost two hours.

There was no evidence the call, coming a day after a gunman forced a late night lockdown of the Garden State Plaza and hours after another threat at a high school in Lodi, was motivated by the election. But school officials had raised safety concerns with opening the buildings to voters months before the incident.

Valenti petitioned the county over the summer to move polling locations from the schools, but the request was denied. Changes in polling places are typically only possible when a municipality undergoes a redrawing of its voting districts.

Residents currently vote in Hamilton, Central, Coleman and the Middle/High School, as well as in borough hall.