East Valley School District bond likely will fail

The East Valley Knights likely won’t get their new castles, election night results indicate.

The East Valley School District sought a $220 million bond to fund the replacement of its 64-year-old high school and 56-year-old middle school.

Tuesday night’s vote count shows the bond with 54.5% support. Bonds need a 60% supermajority for passage. More votes will be counted in the coming days, but the deficit is significant.

The bond would have meant more than two new buildings, as district officials planned to move sixth-graders to the middle school level, as is consistent with most other districts in the area.

At a watch party at the school district office, initiative supporters, the school board, students and staff convened to be together when the tally was posted.

An undisturbed silence fell over the room after the results came out, with district officials tallying numbers to see if there was a chance later votes could change the result.

After a beat, outgoing Superintendent Brian Talbott addressed the room.

“This is not the way I wanted to leave East Valley,” said Talbott, who will depart the district at the end of the school year. The board has yet to hire Talbott’s successor, deciding four finalists for the role weren’t a “good fit” for the district, Board President Mike Bly said in January.

The next special election is in April. If the school board opts to send to voters another tax proposal to address construction on those ballots, either in the form of another bond or a capital levy, they’ll need to decide soon. A resolution must be submitted to the Spokane County Elections Office by Feb. 27. The board will likely consider next steps at their next scheduled meeting on Feb. 24.

“We’ve got to figure out next steps, because there is a next step. We just don’t know what it is yet,” Talbott said.

Capital levies require a simple majority to pass, but generate less in tax revenue that typically can’t pay for major construction like replacing a school.

East Valley is used to its bonds failing; its last successful bond passed in February 1996, raising nearly $12 million for the district. Seven subsequent attempts to pass bonds all failed, the most recent in 2013 that would have raised $65 million. Since, the district has relied on capital levies to fund repairs and small construction projects in the district, but officials were hopeful a rare endorsement from the Spokane County Republican Party would move the needle.

“Lift our chins,” Talbott told the room. “Lift our chins; that’s what we do in East Valley.”