SEQUIM — Administrators are considering what to recommend the Sequim School Board do now that a district construction bond has failed for the fourth time.
“We’re going to continue to collect data,” Superintendent Gary Neal told staff members Thursday.
“I think at this point, we’re going to slow down, catch our breath [and] develop a well-informed, comprehensive plan.”
The district’s $54 million proposal didn’t make the 60 percent supermajority mark needed for approval of a bond measure after an initial ballot count in Tuesday’s special election and a second count in Jefferson County on Wednesday.
The total from counts in both Clallam and Jefferson counties was 7,441, or 57.02 percent, approving it and 5,609, or 42.98 percent, opposed.
The next count in Clallam County is planned today. The Jefferson County Auditor’s Office will decide if it will count again today after seeing how many valid ballots arrive in the mail.
The measure would have, among other
things, paid for a new elementary school; added general education classrooms at Greywolf Elementary School, science classrooms at Sequim High School and new choir and band rooms at Sequim High; and paid for a major remodel of the school district’s kitchen that services each of the
schools.
Problems won’t go away
“I am disappointed that the community didn’t pass the bond,” said Mike Howe, Sequim School Board member.
“Obviously I believe this is something we need and the problems aren’t going away.”
Howe said much of what will happen next will depend on the leadership of the board and recommendations from administrators.
“It’s my hope that we have discussions within upcoming board meetings about what the future of education looks like in Sequim and explore all sorts of options,” he said.
Discussion about the next steps after the failure of the bond is not on the agenda for the School Board’s next meeting, which will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at 503 N. Sequim Ave.
Await district plans
Colleen Robinson, Citizen for Sequim Schools president, said her group — a grass-roots organization promoting school bonds and levies — will wait for the school district to set the course, if it is for a fifth bond campaign or something else entirely.
“We’re going to let the dust settle and regroup a little bit and catch our breath,” she said.
“The problems aren’t going to go away, and that’s something the opposition doesn’t seem to be getting.”
The failed bond was the district’s fourth attempt to pass a construction bond since April 2014.
A $49.3 million bond proposal with a similar project list to that offered Tuesday fell short of the 60 percent mark by less than one-half of 1 percent.
A February 2014 bond proposal garnered 57.6 percent of the vote.
The April 2014 bond, which was for an ambitious $154 million, won about 47 percent yes votes.
Robinson said she saw several positives from the most recent campaign, despite the bond falling short.
“The involvement from the Sequim High School students was a huge, wonderful gain,” she said, referring to students who worked to get out the vote.
“The tours that the school did were amazing, and I’m hoping the school will continue to do a tour once a month,” Robinson said.
“Some great conversation and ideas started and were shared at those tours.”
There are other things the citizens group learned, she said, that could prove useful for another school construction proposal in the future.
“We plan to talk with the many other communities where school districts like Port Townsend and Crescent did pass proposals and see what they did,” Robinson said.
“We’ll certainly be reviewing the last campaign and identify what things worked and what didn’t.”
Neal on Thursday thanked school staffers for their efforts not only in the recent bond proposal but for their daily work teaching students.
And he told them that administrators will look over data and consider their next step.
“The analogy is [shaking out] the old Etch-a-Sketch,” Neal said.
“We’re getting input, good information. We will have a plan and we will be methodical about it.”
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The Olympic Peninsula News Group is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum.