GENESEO, NY — By a decisive margin, voters Tuesday turned away a $29 million building project to improve classrooms, bus garage and athletic facilities at Geneseo Central School.

The final tally on what would have been one of the most expensive capital project in school history was 668 ‘No’ and 473 ‘Yes.’

At the close of the polls, Superintendent Tim Hayes was ready to “dig into the data” collected in exit polls to determine why the project failed to find traction.

“We haven’t had time to analyze the data yet, but two things we’ve heard is the uncertainty about the economy and the overall size of the project,” he said.

Had the project passed, the school would have bought six acres of adjacent property for a new bus compound and fuel depot with repair and cleaning garage.

Also in the works would have been a new basketball gym and renovation of the old one, artificial turf for the football field, a track upgrade, auditorium stage and chorus room reconstruction, an instrumental music room extension, playground improvements, new art room, new computer room, swimming pool renovations, kitchen and cafeteria improvements, locker replacement, parking lot reconfiguration, and an assortment of other improvements.

The vote was shadowed by ill-timed rhetoric from Albany during the past few weeks, proposing $700 million in cuts in school spending among the solutions to New York State’s budget crisis.

Superintendent Hayes pointed out that the proposed cuts have been in operational categories as opposed to the campus building fund.

The school board’s next step is to isolate parts of the project that are critical to complete in spite of the vote. Hayes says swimming pool lights and track resurfacing are at the top of the list. “We might get one more season out of the track as a practice facility, but it can’t be used anymore for competition.”

Without support to build a new transportation facility, the board will also be pressed to make a decision about the old one — which was deemed unsatisfactory by the state Department of Transportation.

“They only allowed us to continue using it with the idea that we’d be building a new facility,” said Hayes.