Approval of an education referendum in Beech Grove means the school district won’t have to eliminate bus transportation, but Tuesday’s defeat of a similar measure in Franklin Township will force administrators to make hard choices to keep schools operating.

In Perry Township, a $98.9 construction referendum trailed by less than 200 votes with 97 percent of precincts reporting.

Superintendent Thomas Little said his data indicated the referendum would fail, but he intends to present the plan before voters again next year.

Unofficial results showed the Beech Grove referendum passing 1,383 to 861, while Franklin Township voters crushed their referendum by a 2-1 margin.

Beech Grove Superintendent Paul Kaiser he was pleased with the results in his district. “We still have to be very conservative going forward.”

But Franklin Township Superintendent Walter Bourke said voters made their wishes clear.

Bourke said he and the School Board will begin work this month on trimming about $9 million from next year’s budget. Of that total, $3 million will be cut from the general fund, an amount Bourke said equals 60 teaching positions.

Dozens of teachers will have to be laid off, but Bourke said the district will try and trim other positions as well and retain as many teachers as possible.

“Our real challenge will be to offer the excellence in education that we always have,” Bourke said.

Thirty percent of the transportation fund also will have to be cut next year, he said, although it remains unclear how that would be done.

Perry Township’s Little said the fate of his district’s $98.9 million plan to renovate and update aging facilities was clear within hours of the polls closing.

“We’ll regroup, we’ll move on and we’ll educate 14,000 kids tomorrow and love them and help them,” Little said Tuesday night.

In Beech Grove, the superintendent, school officials and bus drivers pounded the pavement to encourage support for the schools Tuesday.

“We had 202 parents who voted early, and we contacted almost 1,600 parents who are registered voters in the past 72 hours — personally contacted them,” Kaiser said.

Not having to eliminate busing is a huge relief, he said.

“If we would have lost . . . our kids would have lost, they would have lost the ability to get to school,” said Kaiser, explaining that the ramifications would have snowballed and impacted attendance, test scores and education as a whole.

Facing multimillion-dollar budget problems because of the state’s new 1 percent property-tax cap, Beech Grove and Franklin Township schools asked voters not to take the full tax cut due in 2010 and instead let the schools use that money.

Franklin Township resident Lon Seebach supported the school district but voted against a new Wishard Memorial Hospital.

“I think we need to start looking at where we put our tax dollars in terms of all the various areas of need. Basically, I think we need to address education more than we need to address fancy buildings or exotic architecture,” Seebach said, citing Lucas Oil Stadium, the expanded convention center and the new airport terminal.

Retiree Joyce Clark didn’t like any of the referendum questions on the ballot in Franklin Township.

“With the economy, everything’s so bad right now,” Clark said. “I hate to see more money going out right now.”

Perry Township retirees James and Sari Marsh echoed Clark’s statement.

Both said the burden of additional taxes simply was too much and indicated they voted “no” on Perry Township’s school plan and the Wishard referendum.

“We’re tired of schools having huge basketball courts and swimming pools. Why do you need that for education?” James Marsh said.

He lamented how little he had heard about the school plan and admitted he didn’t know the details.

“Whatever the plans are, it means more tax for me. I’m taxed out. . . . We can’t afford any more taxes,” he said.

Perry Township’s sweeping plan had called for securing entryways and playgrounds, updating fire-alarm systems, replacing 40- and 50-year-old mechanical systems, upgrading plumbing, improving traffic patterns at schools by adding separate routes for buses and cars, and adding on to Southport and Perry Meridian high schools.

Little said those issues won’t go away, and the district will present the plan to voters again next year.

“It just wasn’t the right time to raise taxes,” Little said, referring to the rocky economy.

Unlike Beech Grove and Franklin Township, which sought funding referendums, Perry Township’s construction plan put it in a different category under state law, and officials were not allowed to comment on the plan after a state-mandated hearing June 1. That led to an information void that many voters found discouraging.

Little said those limitations hurt the school district and community.

“Not being able to talk to my community about the needs of the district . . . was extremely frustrating,” Little said

“We played by the rules, and we took them seriously, but it did not enable me to communicate to the community. The very people who are closest to the issues couldn’t talk,” he said. “Somehow, that needs to be changed.”

Beech Grove’s Kaiser, who spent Tuesday outside polling sites talking to voters, agreed.

“I think it’s totally unfair because they can’t talk to people, they can’t tell people what they need.”