PORT TOWNSEND — Brinnon School District voters forcefully passed a two-year maintenance and operations replacement levy after unofficial election results were tallied Tuesday night.
The measure was passing with 342 in favor, or 60.25 percent, to 225 against, or 39.75 percent, after the initial count election night at the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office in the courthouse.
“I’m very please that the Brinnon community has always supported the Brinnon School,” Valerie Schindler, Brinnon School Board chairwoman, said after the results were posted online shortly after 8 p.m.
“I think the community has always felt the Brinnon School is the heart of the community.”
She said the school not only supports students but provides adult education and has a superior information technology program.
Of the 956 ballots mailed, 567 were returned and counted Tuesday, for a voter turnout of 59.3 percent.
County Auditor Donna Eldridge said she expected about 35 more ballots to come in today.
The auditor’s elections division mailed out 1,209 ballots Jan. 19.
The next ballot count will be at about noon Friday, Eldridge said, and certification of the special election is set for 8:30 a.m. Feb. 24.
The Brinnon School District two-year maintenance and operations replacement levy ballot measure will raise $572,000 over two years starting in 2011.
The district has 30 kindergarten to eighth-grade students at Brinnon School.
Brinnon property owners will be taxed at a rate of $1.04 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, which will go up to $1.10 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2012.
A homeowner with a home valued at $200,000, for example, will pay $208 a year, which will increase to $220 in 2012.
That will raise $278,885 for 2011 and $293,661 in 2012.
It replaces an existing levy that expires this year, with levy money going toward textbooks, supplies and unfunded special education requirements.
It also covers the cost of sending Brinnon students to neighboring districts, such as Quilcene High School.
Ballots also were mailed to 253 voters in the Sequim School District — those who live within East Jefferson County — for a levy election that garnered more than 60 percent approval.
The total ballots mailed in Jefferson County were 1,209, and 718 had been returned and were counted Tuesday for a voter turnout of 59.39 percent.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
