District administrator emotions were optimistic following initial school bond election results on Tuesday night, February 10th.
With the initial 8,500 counted ballots, over 5200 voters had said yes to the district’s $244 million capital construction bond proposed to re-build and enlarge Mount Si High School for 2,300 students, construct a 6th elementary school on Snoqualmie Ridge, eventually reinstate Snoqualmie Middle School and make improvements to all existing SVSD schools.
Although initial results showed strong support and pointed to a likely bond passage with a nearly 62% approval rate, the district would only say that it was “extremely optimistic” the day following the election.
At the school board meeting the following day, though, Superintendent Aune and board members were calling their Proposition 1 school bond a victory.
Bond results continued an upward trend all week, with each new batch of ballots counted by King County Elections. By Friday, February 13th, and another 1,700 ballots tallied, the number of yes vote increased to just over 6,300 or 62.38% of the total.
The school bond was required to meet a supermajority 60% support level in order to secure the tax funding. Just over 42% of registered voters had participated in the special election, slightly lower than expected from campaign volunteers.
The results won’t be “officially official” until King County Elections certifies the election on Tuesday, February 24th, but according to an SVSD weekly newsletter, “It appears the measure has been approved by the voters.”
School Board Vice President Carolyn Simpson stated, “Now that the voters have soundly confirmed and supported our facilities plan, we now turn our attention to ensuring that the planning and the building of our schools are done well within the timeframes we need to relieve overcrowding and to upgrade our buildings.”
Residents can monitor daily election updates until the results are certified at King County Elections website.
