PORT TOWNSEND — The $29.1 million Chimacum Schools construction bond measure was only 48 votes shy of approval Wednesday.
A second ballot count Wednesday in Tuesday’s election narrowed the gap, but favorable votes were not enough to push support over the required 60 percent approval threshold.
A third vote count will occur by noon today, Elections Supervisor Betty Johnson said.
“We are of course disappointed by the results of the election,” said Eric Jorgensen, spokesman for Chimacum Grows Kids, a citizens’ group that campaigned for passage of the bond measure.
“This was a setback but not one that will keep us from moving the big picture forward,” he said in an email Wednesday.
School Superintendent Rick Thompson said Tuesday night that Chimacum School likely would discuss election results Wednesday night when it convened at its regular meeting, although the issue was not on the agenda.
Thompson was not available for comment Wednesday.
The second vote tally on Wednesday showed 3,244 votes in favor, or 59.12 percent, to 2,243 votes, or 40.88 percent, opposed.
Tuesday night’s initial count was 2,994 votes, or 58.69 percent, approving the measure to 2,107 votes, or 41.31 percent, opposed.
A 60 percent supermajority is required to pass a bond issue.
Voter turnout as of Wednesday was computed at 61.10 percent, with 5,490 ballots returned out of 8,986 mailed to registered voters.
Among the outstanding ballots are about 75 ballots challenged because they lack signatures or are illegible.
These can be corrected as late as one day prior to the May 6 ballot certification, the auditor’s office said.
For ballots to be counted today, they must have been postmarked Tuesday or earlier, Johnson said.
The majority of the money that would have been raised by the bond measure, $19.8 million, would have been allocated for the expansion of
Chimacum Creek Primary School that was built in 1999.
The kindergarten-through-third-grade-school would have been expanded into a full kindergarten-through-fifth-grade elementary school.
The remainder of the money would have been used for upgrades of technology, heating, electrical and the construction of an all-weather track at the school district’s main -campus.
The current elementary school, a 1948 building in disrepair, would have been demolished.
The measure proposed a property tax levy rate of $1.21 per $1,000 assessed property value. It would have been expected to be required for 20 years to finance the bond.
The annual property tax for a $150,000 property would have increased by $181.50, district officials have said.
“A clear majority of voters were in support of this proposal,” Jorgensen said.
“There are plenty of avenues for us all to explore to find ways of improving our schools and our community, and that is what we intend to do.”
Attempts to pass a bond measure with 60 percent approval have failed twice before.
A $34.8 million proposal failed in February 2015 with a slim majority of 2,033 votes, or 50.88 percent, in favor and 1,963 votes, or 49.12 percent, opposed.
After obtaining public input through several public meetings, the school district scaled down the proposal, removing plans for a stadium with artificial turf and new buildings for the middle school and administration offices — items the district found that the public did not want.
On Feb. 6, a proposal for a $29.1 million bond measure gained support from 2,749 voters, or 58.04 percent, and was opposed by 1,987 voters, or 41.96 percent — about 100 votes short of what it needed.
The proposal was unchanged in Tuesday’s third attempt to use the momentum gained during the February try.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsula
dailynews.com.
