Schools must decide whether to try again

Tue., March 21, 2006

By Tom Lutey toml@spokesman.com (509) 927-2179

With only a handful of ballots remaining to be tabulated, no last-minute turnarounds are expected for narrowly failing Spokane-area school bonds and levies.

That means the waiting is over for four local school districts that must decide by the end of this month whether to hold a second vote May 16. All the districts needed a 60 percent majority vote to pass their funding requests.

Spokane County elections officials say they have counted almost all ballots but need to review 400 votes bearing questionable signatures before certifying the results.

West Valley School District, which fell 44 votes short of avoiding a 20 percent cut in its overall budget, will decide Wednesday evening whether to pursue a revote. If the school board votes to live with the rejection of its maintenance and operations levy, it will have to come up with a plan for a budget cut of roughly $7 million a year. The proposal received 59.2 percent approval.

Mead School District will discuss next week whether to chase the additional “yes” votes needed to make its technology levy successful. The $2.9 million levy, which was to pay for computer equipment, received 59.4 percent approval.

Nine Mile Falls School District needed 80 more “yes” votes to pass its $9.2 million bond for facility improvements. The bond garnered only 52 percent of the vote.

Central Valley School District has a regular school board meeting next Monday. The district needed 701 more “yes” votes to pass its $55.2 million construction bond. Roughly 57 percent of voters supported the bond.

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