Taxpayers in the Riverhead School District began trickling into Riverhead High School just after 6 a.m. Tuesday as booths opened for a district-wide referendum vote on a proposed $122.9 million schools overhaul.

The price tag, to be paid over 23 years, would pay for expanding all of the district's buildings except the one on Roanoke Avenue, which would become a central administrative building, officials said.

A total of 53 new classrooms are proposed under the plan. The 25 classrooms currently housed in portable facilities will be phased out, officials said. The only portables the district plans to keep are the eight newest ones at the high school. They would be used for the Star Academy, formerly known as the alternative school. New music rooms are planned for all the schools, as well as new ball fields, 10 new science labs for the high school and a new gym for the middle school.

Polls close at 9 p.m.