SEQUIM — The $49.3 million Sequim school construction bond has failed by just 54 votes.
Clallam County Auditor Shoona Riggs and Jefferson County’s elections coordinator Betty Johnson released the certified results at about 10 a.m.
Approval fell 0.45 percentage points short of a 60 percent supermajority — the minimum threshold required for passage.
“It looks like it was . . . 54 votes shy between both counties,” Riggs said Tuesday.
Supporters had hoped that when the remaining ballots were counted before the Nov. 3 general election was certified Tuesday, the measure might gain enough to put it over the supermajority threshold.
But the additional 248 ballots counted Tuesday did not change the outcome. The percentage by which the measure lost didn’t budge.
It was 0.45 percentage points short on the Friday after the election and remained the same after Tuesday’s final count.
“We did get more than 50 percent . . . and would have been winners” had a supermajority not been required, Colleen Robinson, Citizens for Sequim Schools president, said Tuesday.
“Clearly, it is something that the community is behind and that the community wants.
“We are just not meeting the threshold of the supermajority, and we missed by such a tiny amount this time.”
Two previous attempts to pass a construction bond failed also.
All other outcomes in the all-mail general election remained the same as those reported the week after the polls closed.
In the Sequim bond election — which involved voters from both Clallam and Jefferson counties — the total of votes cast in both counties was 7,193 yes votes, or 59.55 percent, to 4,885 no votes, or 40.45 percent.
In Clallam County, the bond had 7,103 yes votes, or 59.6 percent, to 4,814 no votes, or 40.4 percent.
In Jefferson County, the bond had 90 yes votes, or 55.9 percent, to 71 no votes, or 44.1 percent.
Of the 11,917 ballots counted in Clallam County from the Sequim School District, the school bond item was left blank on 747, meaning voters did not vote yes or no, Riggs said.
Of the 161 ballots counted in Jefferson County from the Sequim School District, the school bond item was left blank on 11, Betty Johnson, Jefferson County elections coordinator, said Tuesday.
Information about how many of the ballots counted Tuesday originated in the Sequim School District was not available, Riggs said.
“It is disappointing to have the vote be so close,” Bev Horan, Sequim School Board of Directors president, said Tuesday.
“The needs for our buildings and our students are still so critical.”
The School Board will begin to talk about what to do next when it meets at 6 p.m. Dec. 7 in the district board room at 503 N. Sequim Ave.
“That will be the first time we can really have a discussion on it,” Horan said.
Said Brian Lewis, Sequim School District business manager: “We are going to continue to explore our options. Really, it is up to the Board of Directors to make decisions about how we are going to move forward.”
Although this is the third loss in a row for the district, each attempt has garnered more support from voters.
Voters defeated a $154 million measure by a 56 percent-44 percent margin in April 2014.
A $49.2 million bond last February received 6,691 yes votes to 5,026 no votes, or 57.11 percent to 42.89 percent.
The percentage of yes votes “goes up every time,” Robinson said, adding that this time, the bond “passed in just about all of the precincts, so we’ve gained a lot of good momentum.
“We are not giving up,” she said.
“Schools are not going to get better just because the bond didn’t pass, and so we will continue to move forward with the guidance of the School Board and the school district, and however they see fit to move forward.”
Had it been approved, the bond would have been used to renovate and expand Greywolf Elementary, build a new school, renovate Helen Haller to house Olympic Peninsula Academy — for alternative education — renovate and expand Sequim High School, demolish a Sequim Community School building and upgrade the district kitchen and maintenance facility.
The bond also would have funded a new science wing of six laboratory classrooms at Sequim High and added band, orchestra and choir rooms to the performing arts wing.
Music students currently must cross the street to attend classes in the former Sequim Community School.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
