Election results on BCSD $16.4 million school bond
One of the many signs around Boundary County encouraging voters to vote "Nyet," the Russian word for "no," on the March 8 election.
Photo by CYNTHIA BONSANT
BONNERS FERRY — The $16.4 million bond by the Boundary County School District for a new Valley View Elementary failed to get the two-thirds majority of votes needed to pass.
A total of 1,158 people voted “yes,” or 53.79%; and 995, or 46.21%, voted “no.” The number of registered voters for Boundary County is 7,227.
The number of residents in Boundary County is unknown at this time, Boundary County clerk’s office officials said.
After the ballots were counted, BCSD Superintendent Jan Bayer said she met with the BCSD board vice president Teresa Rae and the architect working on Naples and Mt. Hall elementary schools to see what the main concerns and priorities are for those schools.
The BCSD facility committee will also be called back so they can return to the drawing board on maintaining the facilities, Bayer said.
Bayer said she, as well as the others involved in the bond effort, are asking themselves “how do we connect with individuals that didn’t vote or didn’t attend any of the 17 meetings we scheduled,” she said.
Bayer said she is reading social media comments to see what voters thought of the bond and their input. She said much of the discussion on social media has included the spread of inaccurate misinformation and confusion on how a bond works versus a memorandum of understanding.
“I’m thankful to the 54% that voted yes and to those that voted. I was not shocked by the result due to the two-thirds majority needed to pass,” Bayer said. “I thought we had good representation of the community on our facilities committee and had done our due diligence in research. Now it is back to the drawing board.”
Bayer added that many of the questions and concerns of community members would have been answered if they had visited the district website, where all information was available on the front page, or had come to one of the 17 meetings and open houses that had been scheduled since January.
Votes per precincts results
BF/Kootenai: 265 votes; 158 yes; 107 no.
Copeland: 177 votes; 51 yes; 126 no.
Moyie Springs: 477 votes; 197 yes; 280 no.
Naples: 285 votes; 141 yes; 144 no.
North Bonners Ferry: 393 votes; 245 yes; 148 no.
Valley View: 235 votes; 143 yes; 92 no.
Absentee votes: 2,153 votes; 1,158 yes; 995 no.