KELLY BOND ISSUE: VOTERS AGAIN REJECT HIGH SCHOOL PROPOSAL

BENTON -- Voters in a special election Tuesday rejected a bond issue for Kelly schools by a vote of 439 to 452. It was the second defeat of the proposal this year.

Only 49 percent of the 891 voters who cast ballots supported the bond issue, which would have provided $4.5 million to build a new high school. A two-thirds majority, or 67 percent, was needed to pass the measure.

"I don't really have a good explanation for it," said schools superintendent Don Abner. "I think probably with the vote we've received the last two times, people simply don't want to pay the extra tax."

Abner said the improvements are needed because the district's enrollment has outgrown the high school's capacity. Since 1993, the district has had gains of enrollment of as much as 5 percent annually. Currently, 340 of the district's 1,053 students are enrolled at the high school.

Abner said voters have historically rejected bond issues for the school district, voting down three others in recent years. Most recently, the same request for the high school addition was rejected April 6 when it received 51 percent voter approval, about 85 votes short of the four-sevenths majority it needed to pass at that time.

"My experience in the two votes we've taken is people really don't question the fact that we need it," he said. "In all the meetings it was never expressed that we were telling them anything untrue. It's just an unwillingness to approve the tax increase we need to change it."

The proposed issue would have increased the district's debt service levy from 49 cents to 98 cents to fund construction of the high school, including 20 new classrooms, a multipurpose area, science lab and educational storage.

The district's operating levy is the lowest in Scott County at $2.66. Its debt service levy is one of the lowest in the county.

Although disappointed with the results, Abner said the school won't shut down because the bond issue failed.

"We still need space, we still have overcrowding," he said. "We'll just continue to do the best we can with what we have."