Freeman school bond winning
The fourth try appears to have been the charm for the Freeman School District’s bond to pay to renovate and expand its schools after Tuesday’s special election, but the second try for the East Valley bond appeared headed toward failure.
“We’re very, very happy and very optimistic,” said Freeman Superintendent Sergio Hernandez.
Freeman’s $19.5 million bond appears to be passing, with 971 yes votes pushing it to 65.38 percent approval. Bonds require a 60 percent supermajority to pass. The district tried to pass a bond twice in 2002 and once in 2005. More ballots remain to be counted, but Hernandez is hopeful that the results won’t change.
“You don’t want to just start yelling until the final vote is counted,” he said. “I think it’s really important that the first thing we do is thank the voters for their trust in the district.”
He also thanked the many volunteers who worked on the bond campaign. “We had home parties and tours and car washes,” he said. “It truly was a grass-roots community movement.”
Hernandez said students were asking about the election results all day Tuesday. “They’re as excited as we are,” he said.
The district hopes to begin remodeling and expanding the high school next spring. The project is expected to take 16 months. When that’s finished, crews will start on the elementary school remodel and expansion, which should take 12 months. Students will be housed in portables and temporary classroom space during the projects.
“It will be a tough period during construction,” Hernandez said. “We’ll get through it and in the end the community will be very happy and please with the newly remodeled buildings.
East Valley’s first try at passing its $33 million bond in March received slightly more than 55 percent approval. District officials said at the time that they believed that some people assumed it would pass and didn’t vote or assumed that it only required a simple majority to pass. They hoped more people would vote during the May election.
More people did in fact vote, but the percentages are about the same. On election day in March, 4,698 votes had been returned. This time 4,734 had their ballots turned in by election day, though some votes remain to be counted. Yes votes so far total 2,589 or 55.46 percent.
District officials were unavailable for comment early Wednesday, said district spokeswoman Judi Christianson. Instead they released a brief statement thanking voters for their support and that the board of directors and incoming Superintendent John Glenewinkel would be addressing the issue in coming months.
The bond would have paid to modernize Mountain View Middle School, East Valley Middle School and Otis Orchards Elementary. It also would have covered security and communications improvements at the elementary schools.