Inland Southwest Washington voters presented school districts with a mixed bag Tuesday.
Unofficial results in the special election had maintenance and operations levies passing in Pe Ell, Winlock and White Pass, but failing in Napavine, Onalaska and Rochester. A $19.5 million bond issue to build a new middle school in Tenino was well below passage at just 46.27 percent approval.
For the districts with levies, this was the second and final chance to put the measures to voters this year. If a levy fails to get the required supermajority of 60 percent in two attempts, the district can't try again until 2005 and will have no levy taxes collected that year.
Napavine Superintendent George Crawford said the levy committee is still optimistic, believing the late absentee ballots will be positive, but the night's results — ending at 58.17 percent approval — were disappointing.
"It's a frustration," he said, "because I know how hard everybody's worked, and we know how much the cuts hurt because we've been down that road before."
The district went through a double levy failure in 2001. It had to make a variety of cuts and begin charging participation fees for sports.
That failure ate up a lot of the district's reserve, school board Chair Shane Bluhm said.
"So we're going to have to make cuts" if the levy fails, he said. "… But (it is hoped) we won't be in that position."
The district's done well academically and athletically, and seems in harmony, so he came in optimistic about how the levy would do, Bluhm said.
John Hylton, co-chair of the levy committee, said it isn't over yet: More absentees will get counted Friday, and his wife had tallied 59 people identified as yes voters who mailed their ballots Tuesday. Plus, another 10 absentees came in with the polling votes, so if all those are positives and no more negatives come in, it could pass, he said.
Onalaska, which has never passed a levy on the first ballot appearance in 17 years, doesn't look as if it will pass one at all this year. Tuesday numbers put it at 56.34 percent.
Retiring Superintendent Bob Kraig said the two-year measure would need almost 200 more votes — nearly all positive — to come in by Friday to pass. He doubts that will happen.
The levy provides money for about seven teachers, all the district activities and a good share of the transportation budget, he said.
The three-person contingent from Winlock joined Napavine in tense waiting for poll votes to come in. Unlike Napavine, their results surged past the 60 percent mark to 62.01 percent.
"Oh wow, that's huge!" enthused Raylene Suter, a member of the south county school's levy committee, who pulled out her cellular telephone to pass on the good news.
Superintendent Dan Smith, happy that it passed, said he estimated the walk-in voters were 75 percent in favor.
"It would have been just a crying shame to have these new buildings and no levy to support them, and the voters realized that," he said, extending thanks to the levy committee and voters.
Pe Ell — which, like Onalaska, was entirely vote-by-mail — had a strong 64 percent.
"We made it, thank goodness," Interim Superintendent and Business Manager Dianne Feuchter said. "It will make it a lot easier for our new superintendent coming in, to have that support."
Passage means the district can continue its current programs and begin researching much needed new curriculum in math, science and social studies, she said, thanking voters.
Marty Fortin, the White Pass levy campaign chair, said this morning he's guardedly optimistic about the 60.74 percent approval from voters. More ballots will be counted later this week.
"If they follow the trend we saw in the absentees and walk-ins, we're going to be fine," he said.
Looking back on the 53 percent yes votes in February, Fortin said he thinks a lot more people started paying attention to what was going on at the schools and felt optimistic about their future. The district had a month of community meetings to talk about the levy, and reduced how much it was asking.
"A lot of people were engaged and a lot of people were paying attention. Obviously, some people changed their mind about their support," he said.
In Rochester, Superintendent Jim Anderson said the next count may bring the district's approval numbers up some, but he doubts it will be by the needed 2.4 percent. He will meet today with building administrators to begin talking about cuts, and the school board will likely discuss the same at its meeting tonight.
"We know we're going to have less staff, we know we're going to have to cut some transportation and other special services. We know it's going to have to happen. It's just a question of where and how deep," he said.
In his 10 years in the district, he hasn't seen a double levy failure and doesn't know why this one has apparently happened, he said. The district has new buildings, a good staff and rising test scores, and now to have a double failure is devastating and doesn't quite make sense, he said.
"(It's a) pretty somber place around here today because everyone knows what was at stake," Anderson said.
Tuesday night counts included mail-in ballots received through that day's mail and from selected polling sites in Napavine, Winlock, White Pass, Rochester and Tenino.
Results will not be official until May 7. Lewis County will have its next count Friday morning, Thurston County on Thursday afternoon.
Julie Graham covers education and religion for The Chronicle. She may be reached by e-mail at jgraham@chronline.com or by calling 807-8232.
