Libby voters say no to bond

Libby School District voters rejected a

$12 million bond issue that supporters say was necessary to perform

critical structure upgrades and responsibly pare down kindergarten

through 12th-grade into two buildings.

In a rough 61-39 split, Libby voters

said no to a bond that would have increased annual property taxes

for the next two decades.

“Right to the end when they were doing

the printout I was expecting to see the numbers flopped around the

other way, but they weren’t,” Superintendent Kirby Maki said. “… At

least we had a good number of people vote. When you get that many

to vote you get a pretty clear picture of what the community and

parents think.”

The 55.8-percent voter turnout was

astounding, according to Lincoln County Elections Administrator

Tammy Lauer. The measure was rejected by 1,844 voters and favored

by 1,158.

“That is huge,” Lauer said. “Sometimes

in school elections we’re lucky to get 10 percent. People just

don’t vote in school elections.”

The mail-ballot election began Jan. 14

and ended Tuesday night. Two-thirds of the 3,002 ballots were

turned in by last week, Lauer said. On the final day of the

election, a steady stream of people dropped by the clerk and

recorder’s office in the courthouse to place their ballot in the

box.

Taking into consideration the offhanded

comments from voters at the counter, Lauer said she couldn’t tell

which direction the election would take. She was surprised by the

margin.

“There were as many that said, ‘I hope

this thing goes,’ as there were people who said, ‘Oh, I can’t

afford it,’” Lauer said. “I was surprised there was that big of a

spread.”

The Libby School Board voted last

October to run a bond issue, stating that $12 million was a

conservative amount to perform needed renovations and upgrades. The

renovations, trustees said, would be necessary to accommodate more

students of different ages in the middle and high schools after Asa

Wood Elementary is closed. The critical upgrades, they explained,

would ensure that the two buildings could be utilized for at least

the next 20 years.

Maki and board trustees expressed

disappointment with the results. Trustee Ellen Johnston said she

hopes that those who voted against the bond are not parents with

kids in the school district.

“I like to think it’s an older

population that doesn’t have kids in school and is not concerned

with education,” she said. “I hope it’s that and not people who are

not putting education first.”

Board trustee Lee Disney said he

believes that some who voted against the bond were not informed

about the issue.

“We laid out a good plan. We did

everything we could to educate the people of what we were trying to

do. Some chose to not even take a look,” he said. “They just voted

no on taxes and never bothered to look at what we were asking for.

With that kind of attitude – it’s hard to beat those.”

School officials and community

advocates papered the town with pamphlets, held evening meetings,

met with teachers and staff at the schools, wrote guest columns and

letters in the newspaper, built websites and set up informational

tables at sporting events and the grocery store.

“The school system’s not going to die

and we’re not going to come off the wheels,” Disney said. “It’s

going to be tough to offer the quality education we want for our

students. It’s going to be tough on the staff to do that.”