Return of April 26 school ballots on bonds tops 50 percent

The county elections office as of Tuesday morning had received 320 ballots back from Oakesdale school district and 352 from the Colton/Uniontown school district for the April 26 election.

Total, 1312 ballots were mailed out to the two school districts. Late registration closed April 18 to district residents who have never before registered to vote in this state.

Both bond measures are asking voters to vote on construction projects to update their school buildings.

Both schools will receive additional funding through the state superintendent’s office if voters give approval of the bond measures.

Colton School District voters will decide a revised bond proposal for their school on the ballot. The school remodel measure fell 40 votes shy of receiving the required 60 percent approval on last November’s ballot.

Colton school officials in January conducted two public meetings to ask citizen for input on why the bond failed. With those comments, Superintendent Nate Smith and the committee working on the project sat down in February and reduced the proposed bond amount.

The revised request reduced the bond request $164,000, from $5,160,000 to $4,996,000. Those changes to the remodel included the school gymnasium and the bus garage. There will be less changes to the walls of the school than originally planned.

The Oakesdale School District is asking its voters to approve $4.2 million in 20-year bonds to remodel the buildings on its 78-year-old campus. Ballots were sent out to 567 voters.

Ballots must have a postmark of April 26 or earlier to be counted.