Cooperstown school district residents left no doubt about their feelings on an almost $20 million capital project plan they defeated by a vote of 1,365 to 331 Tuesday.

The more than 1,700 voters who turned out established a new mark for district elections, according to district clerk Darlene Bennett. She said she checked her records and there were a couple of times when the turnout hit 1,600, but Tuesday was the highest.

"There was definitely at lot of interest. It was the highest vote count in a long time," said school superintendent Mary Jo McPhail Wednesday morning

McPhail said she was uncertain at this point exactly what the next step would be.

"I'm sure the board will take some time to deliberate before making a decision," she said. "I don't think the board will rush into anything."

McPhail said the board will be aided in the decision making process by information garnered from an exit poll conducted by members of the school's participation in government class.

The poll was voluntary and asked voters what aspects of the project appealed to them. A second question asked if they did not support the entire project, what portions would they support? And finally, the survey allowed for additional comments from the voters.

"It will give the board a lot of good information," she said.

McPhail said it was the first time she knew of that the school conducted such a survey of voters.

Jeff Snyder, the class instructor, was already working Wednesday morning to compile the results of the poll.

"I thought it was great so many people got out and voted," said board of education president Tony Scalici Wednesday morning. "Obviously the vote was so lopsided, something was out of phase with people's expectation."

Scalici said usually when the board looks at a capital project it has something specific in mind and focuses on that. They often end up wishing they had also addressed other things simultaneously. This time, he said, the board took the approach that if they were already planning a fair sized disruption of the school, they might was well look at doing other things at the same time.

The board tried to look at the big picture and plan a comprehensive modernization of the school, he said. "It was an honest look at all the things we considered important to the modernization."

Scalici said the board had scheduled a meeting with its architects for Wednesday no matter which way the vote went and will decide the next step.

"There are things I'm sure we'll be getting right back to," he said. "I think we need to turn around and get it right back out there."

As the vote approached, a group of residents calling themselves the Concerned Citizens Group emerged and set out to mount opposition to the project.

The group, according to an early statement, described the project as an "overwhelming financial burden for the residents of the school district."

The project was made up of three main components involving the elementary school, middle/high school and the bus garage.

The part of the project focused on the elementary school would cost $6,847,000 and would include renovations to the existing building, the construction of a new regulation-sized gym and the replacement of the playground "Kid City."

Work on the middle/high school would cost $7,684,000 and would include the shuffling around of office space to move the main office to the building entranceway and move the district office which currently blocks a fire exit, renovations to the five science labs, increased space for the choral/instrumental music instruction space and the construction of six new classrooms to allow for displacement of classroom space taking place because of other construction.

As part of the project, the bus garage would be torn down and replaced at a cost of $4,960,000. The new garage would include a work bay, two service bays, a wash bay, a parts/equipment room, a driver's room, bathrooms, a mechanical room and room for bus storage.

With interest, the project was estimated to cost nearly $32 million, with a local share of almost $11 million. The tax levy would increase by 8.32 percent beginning with the 2009-10 budget.