Both bond proposals for the W
ayland Union school district were defeated soundly in Tuesday’s election.
Neither of the two propositions was able to muster as much as 40 percent of the total vote.
With three of four precincts reporting, Proposal I was losing 1,809 no to 1,017 yes. Proposal II was trailing nearly two to one, 1,858 to 966.
This means Proposal I was losing 64% to 36% and Proposal II by 65.8% to 34.2%.
Proposal I, for $34 million, focused on academic facilities. It would have funded an addition to the junior high school and moving all fourth-and fifth-graders to a new elementary school on school-owned property next to the transportation building on Wildcat Drive. Meanwhile, the school district planned to sell Pine Street Elementary, which at 75 years, is the oldest building in the district.
Proposal II was all about athletics. It would have funded a new high school swimming pool, making way for expansion of the band and orchestra program and metal shop programs into the existing pool, 12 new tennis courts to replace the old high school and junior high courts, and would have paid $1 million for artificial turf at the football stadium.
The two proposals together would have cost taxpayers more than $55 million.
60 to 40 in the eyes of the leadership the voters had no clue what they were voting on. They (leadership) will get the word out and “educate” the voters and bring this issue back to us very soon. Count on it!
It would be nice if they would edcuate us on what the problems were for all the $55 million of solutions they had! The board and the people obviously had bad info from the start. That goes back to whoever was behind the studies to get this started, Tower Pinkster and Triangle Construction. Time to move on from them
Shame on our community!!! Time to open wallets for the kids.
Wallets have always been open by people in this District. Bond after bond were always passed. This is the forst one i can remember in the last 25+ years that was voted down. Time for the school to make better financial decisions. Time for the school board to remember they dont work for Norm Taylor, he works for them and the board works for us.
This is a disappointing result.
As a parent of an 2002 (pre-casino money) Wayland HS grad, maybe Wayland Union Schools shifts the monies they get from the casino to other areas and return to pay to participate athletics and other things that were not being paid for with “found” money BC (Before Casino).
The pool isn’t built to 2017 specs for depth for diving no events. Should Wayland close the pool? How many students will lose out on basic 21st Century computer based machine tool training because voters think others should pay for it?
Next time there has to be a much better marketed directly to parents of students.
There is already a large CAD room, and auto shop. Let’s quit scrubbing these programs for more band space….
Way to go Wayland, fumbled the ball again. We are the Lions of mileage voting. Congrats.
When was the last time a mileage was voted down?
The taxpayers have spoken with their votes. It is up to the school board and administration to go back to the drawing board and design a millage proposal that is less aggressive and not all-encompassing to be everything for everybody.
We are starting to come out of a economic dead period (thank you “leading from behind” President Obama) and in a few years, voters may feel more confident and less stressed in their economic reality to vote for more millage. Until then, put the “must haves” and not the “nice to haves” on the ballot and it may pass.
Blaming the voters for the loss is the wrong way to gain support. It’s like saying “the beatings will continue until morale improves.” Separating us by supporters and non-supporters of the millage is not the issue. the millage proposal(s) were the issue. Evidently, the voters couldn’t support the large increase in taxes.
This isn’t a failure on the part of the voters to understand what the issues are. The voters have no confidence that the board is making sound financial decisions and that lack of confidence is reflected in this vote. $55 million in bonds is too much to ask our community.