RINGWOOD - The Board of Education has unanimously decided not to put the $28.8 million school referendum on the ballot this April 15, according to a letter Board President Richard Schaefer wrote and e-mailed to several community members.

In the last few months, the Board of Education has listened to voters' feedback on why they turned down the referendum last September. The referendum called for retiring the antiquated E.G. Hewitt School and upgrading Martin J. Ryerson Middle School, and Robert Erskine and Peter Cooper schools.

The referendum had to be removed from the ballot because board members weren't able to address taxpayers' concerns on time, according to Schaefer.

"This was simply not a good time for us to move forward," he wrote. "The consensus is that we will wait until April of 2009. The reason for waiting until next April is because it costs us more than $25,000 to hold the election in September. We will wait until a regularly scheduled election before putting the referendum back on the ballot so we save taxpayer dollars."

The next referendum committee will meet March 6 at 7 p.m. in the Ryerson meeting center to clarify any aspect of the referendum and to figure out the next step.

"We have not lost the battle. Our schools will have to survive another year," Schaefer wrote.