After construction referendums to build a new Hillsborough High School on Beekman Lane suffered two ballot box defeats in March and October of 1995, the school board was back in December with a total of six new competing proposals to deal with the enrollment crisis.
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| 12 December 1995 Courier News |
The new high school would have not only solved the 9-12 space problem - where the high school was already 150 students past its maximum of 1,350 - but would have also provided space for younger students with the middle school annex becoming a self-contained seventh elementary school. Five out of the six new proposals involved either adding to or building on the site of the current high school - and one included the idea of a brand new K-5 school on a different site.
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| 13 April 1996 Courier News |
After narrowing down the proposals to either a 700-student addition to the high school for $33 million, or a 1400-student addition for $43 million - each of which would also include $14 million for a new elementary school as a second question - the board was able to finalize a plan for a $39 million 700-student expansion which would also include a new elementary school.
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| 7 October 1996 Courier News |
The district looked at three possible locations for the new school - a 38-acre tract on Beekman Lane, the site of the Flagtown School, and a 49-acre tract on Auten Road. The Flagtown location was owned by the municipality - having been purchased from the school district for $1.00 in the previous decade - but was only six acres, and was not connected to city water. Although the municipality would offer the site for free to the school district, a minimum of 25 additional acres would need to be purchased.
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| 8 December 1999 Courier News |
In the end, the district purchased the Auten Road site from 255 Triangle Associates for $875,000 and started planning for an October 15, 1996 referendum.
With the passage of the referendum by a 57% to 43% margin, Auten Road School became Hillsborough's seventh elementary school when it opened in September 1999.
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| 18 October 2001 Courier News |
Auten Road School and Hillsborough High School were tied together one additional time three years later in 2002 when the high school had its final expansion, and Auten Road School was doubled in size and redesigned as an intermediate school for fifth and sixth-grade students. Through the end of 2017, these last two projects remain the final expansions of the Hillsborough Township school district.
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