TAX INCREASE, BOND ISSUE DEFEATED HANDILY IN JACKSON SCHOOL DISTRICT

JACKSON -- Jackson voters defeated two school funding measures that would have alleviated overcrowding and increased funding for operating costs.

Voters said no to the Jackson School District's proposed $5.3 million bond issue, 2,302-2,775, or 55 percent, against the measure. A four-sevenths majority or 57 percent, was needed to pass the measure.

The bond issue would have funded a new elementary school in the eastern portion of the district, an addition and renovations to R.O. Hawkins Junior High School, and new technology equipment.

Voters also defeated the district's Proposition C rollback waiver that would have allowed the district to increase the operating tax levy by 40 cents. Voters were 60 percent against the proposition at 1,983-2,995.

If approved, the waiver would have increased the operating levy to provide additional funding for teachers' salaries and other district expenses A simple majority was needed for passage.

Superintendent Ron Anderson was disappointed in the outcome, citing the need for a super majority and the issue of a tax increase among the factors contributing to the defeat.

Anderson said the district still must address crowded conditions at the junior high school.

"We'll have to reassess the issue," he said after watching the votes being counted at the Cape Girardeau County Administration Building in Jackson.

School Board President T. Wayne Lewis said school officials had been optimistic the two issues would pass, and the school board will consider putting the issues back on the ballot.

"Our problem of growth is not going to go away," he said. "Without the buildings, we don't have the rooms and without the money we don't have the teachers."

Lewis suggested many voters simply are unhappy with any change in the growing school district, and some people also are concerned about communication with the school board.

Dennis Marchi, a Jackson resident who works in Cape Girardeau and co-chaired a committee that campaigned for a Cape Girardeau school bond issue, was disappointed the measures failed.

Schools are vital to bringing new industry to the county and new residents to a city, he said.

Newly elected school board member Mark Baker opposed the bond issue and Proposition C waiver.

He said many district patrons didn't feel the school board had involved the community in developing the capital improvement plans.

"I think this sends a message the community may want to move in a different direction," Baker said Tuesday night. "I think our job starts tomorrow."