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2nd try: Short by 7.7%
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · September 14, 2017
A majority of voters again supported a $19.8 million school bond referendum, but not enough to break the 60-percent threshold.
Some 52.3 percent voted in favor of the referendum, and 51.5 percent favored raising the debt service levy. On the second try for this project, the bond missed the minimum by 7.7 percent, and the debt service levy missed by 8.5 percent.
“The board is disappointed that once again we have the clear majority, but were unable to clear the 60 percent supermajority hurdle on both ballot questions today,” Board of Education President Mike Colbert said. “As a result, we are unable to move forward with this project for our students.”
Superintendent Kevin Hatfield said “I feel for the board.”
“They’re disappointed,” he said.
He said the school administration remains proud of the plan and felt they provided a “transparent” process.
“I want to thank everybody who was so involved,” Hatfield said. “Tomorrow morning, we’re going to wake up and get to work for kids again.”
However, administrators now “do not have a clear vision,” and sometime in the future either the board will get a new referendum passed or the school district will find itself “desperately in need” to serve pupils without adequate facilities.
“We’ll do the best we can with the funding we have,” he said.
Voters had to decide two questions: The $19.8 million bond to build additions at the high school and elementary school; and raising the debt service levy — a levy that exists to pay off debt — from $2.70 to $3.50 per $1,000 taxable valuation.
• On the $19.8 million bond, 725 voters, or 52.3 percent, approved of the project, while 662 voters, or 47.7 percent, voted no. Unofficial results from the Cedar County Auditor’s office counted 1,387 votes cast on this question.
• On the $3.50 debt service levy, 729 voters, or 51.5 percent, approved of the increase, while 686 voters, or 48.5 percent, disapproved. The county auditor report shows 1,415 ballots cast on this question.
In February, the bond issue garnered 56 percent and the debt service levy collected 54.6 percent support from 1,211 voters. In that election, nearly 31 percent of eligible voters turned out.
This time, between satellite voting and absentee voting, as well as Tuesday’s election, the 1,420 people who voted made up nearly 45 percent of eligible voters.
“Wow,” Colbert said of the 209 extra voters. “Obviously I’m sad about the outcome, but I’m thrilled that many people got involved.”
He said he hoped everyone “voted on the facts.”
“Forty-five percent is a great number, a great show of the community” in a school election, Colbert said.
Hatfield agreed that the larger turnout “is probably a good thing.”
“(This) energized people around the topic,” he said.
The superintendent said that, even if the bond failed, he believes that voters are more aware of “the issues our students face.”
“Hopefully they’re thinking, ‘What does happen 10 years down the road?’” he said.
Hatfield said he heard some residents comment that they wanted the school district “to be more efficient with its resources.”
“That might have been the most efficient plan we had,” he said, because it reduced the number of buildings from three to two.
The election also placed two new people on the school board, Amanda Whaley and Greg Hetrick. Colbert and board member Mike Owen chose not to run again.
“There were two new board members elected tonight so the board is anxious to hear new thoughts on the best way forward,”Colbert said. “Thank you to everyone who volunteered and to those who turned out to vote.”
Hatfield also thanked the people who helped develop the proposal to build the addtions.
“There were people who gave five or six years to that plan,” he said. “They spent countless hours to get it right.”
Residents in favor and in opposition discussed the bond on Voices of West Branch in the weeks leading up to the vote, with some heated exchanges from time to time.
Resident Norm Bickford printed up flyers in opposition and said he sent them to everyone in the school district.
When residents voted on the first referendum in February, some 1,211 voters turned out, about 30.76 percent of those eligible.
Bickford thought that percentage was lower, but said he still wanted to see more people turn out.
“We need better voter attendance,” he said.
He said the February referendum got “very little publicity” and not enough information was made available to the public.
When his flyers appeared in the mail, many residents favoring the bond posted pictures and critiqued Bickford’s statements.
Resident Tracy Schutte and other supporters got an idea to collect as many of the Bickford flyers and turn them into “YES” posters. The flyers were attached to plywood to form the letters and placed in front of homes at 203 West Main and 305 West Main.
Schutte said she posted a request online and residents dropped off their flyers, handed them to others and there were even children riding bicycles and golf carts to homes to collect them.
The boards went up Sept. 10 with Schutte’s name and address on the bottom corner, just in case election laws required it, she said.
“I want people to know the facts, like how much it will cost them per year,” she said. “For me, money is of a concern, and my kids are possibly not going to see anything from this, but that’s OK.”
Bickford said he did not mind his flyers appearing on the YES signs.
“It’s free publicity,” he said, though he called it “a little childish.”
Bickford said he joined some of the Facebook discussions and “some blocked me” before he could answer their questions of make a point.
He wants to see more “logical” spending by the Board of Education before he votes “yes.”
“Everything they’re doing is wrong,” Bickford said.
He said some of the work done on the east parking lot would get torn up with this plan, and the plan includes moving the softball field.
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