For the past two weeks, many in the boundaries of the Hope Public School district have been taking part in early voting for an election that ends tomorrow, March 3rd.  Whether you take the Democratic or Republican ballot, the proposal for a raise in the school millage from 34.7 to 39.7, the state average, will be up for approval.  In past years of millage proposals, approval by a majority of voters in the district has been hard to come by.

The last time voters in the district approved a millage was Tuesday, September 18 of 1990, according to a look at the next day’s issue of the Hope Star.  George Herbert Walker Bush was president and was gathering commitments from allies for a move against Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces in Kuwait.

The measure for a 6.3 mills increase passed 1,303 to 1,049, with precincts at the then-courthouse and the HHS library providing the winning margins with precincts in Fulton, at the Hope Fire Department and Patmos voting against as did, narrowly, absentee voters.

There was a bit of suspense on election night, as the box of ballots from HHS library, which were from zones three and seven, arrived and were counted last.

Back then, Ed Darling, who now chairs the Hempstead County Quorum Court Budget Committee, was the Hope School Board President.  He said after the win, “There’s a big job in front of us to lay out the expectations (for the proposed new elementary school). The goals are realistic and will be a challenge for the board to go forward with the plans of getting the children into an environment more conducive to learning.” He would credit the Junior Auxiliary for helping get out the vote.

Hope Schools’ Superintendent then was Jimmy Jones.  In a separate article in the September 19th Hope Star, he said, “I thought there would be a good turnout. We had to turn out the positive vote. We knew the more voters that turned out, the better shot we had.”  He told the paper that he would be calling the architect for what would become Clinton Primary school the following day and giving the word to start advertising for bids.  

Now, in early March of 2026, Clinton Primary is needing help.  Its HVAC system is nearly 30 years old.  Leaks can be seen staining the ceiling tiles in classrooms and there’s need for a more secure entrance to keep students and staff safe.  The vote count on the evening of March 3rd at the Hempstead County Courthouse will determine whether the repairs, replacement and additions to Clinton Primary as well as needs on the other Hope campuses that range from climate control to bathroom privacy fixes to Hammons Stadium seating support will be addressed relatively quickly or done slowly at a much greater cost due to the incurring of debt. 

There is also the fact that in order to receive state funding to help change learning conditions for students and address the schools’ physical infrastructure, state officials will need to see evidence of buy-in from the public and the ability to cover up to 25 percent of the costs of the projects the state would fund.  

As current Superintendent Jonathan Crossley said January 19th of state funding to help with the costs of climate control repairs at Clinton Primary, “We got an initial approval from the state that says ‘We like your plan.’ We're not at the funding cycle yet. We'll be there soon. We've applied for early decision, which will be later this year, after the millage vote, obviously, but that's about $2.5 million that we could have at our disposal. If we don't get this millage passed, we won't have that money at our disposal.”

The question tomorrow will be whether the voters of the Hope Public Schools District will buck 36 years of rejecting school millage raises and make the choice to provide further for their public schools in their hour of need.  SWARK.Today will bring you those results tomorrow evening.