Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Following the failure of a $7.1 million school improvement bond Feb. 11 for the Oakesdale School District, the school board is deciding what they might do next.
Needing a 60 percent margin to pass, the bond was approved by a wide margin (164-53) in the Oakesdale town precinct while it failed by a similar margin in Farmington (19-51).
In the rural Oakesdale precinct the measure passed 64-39, while in rural Farmington the bond was rejected 15-19.
The voter returns were discussed at a public forum Feb. 19 in Oakesdale. Participants discussed the vote result, asked questions regarding the design, tax structure and other parts of the proposal.
Oakesdale Superin-tendent Jake Dingman said that he, the school board and others will look to further engage Farmington on the school issue.
Because of school-choice policies, Farmington has three different public school buses which come to town to pick up students who attend Tekoa, Oakesdale and Garfield-Palouse.
“For Oakesdale voters, it’s different,” Dingman said. “The school is right in the town. For Farmington it’s a matter of us figuring out a positive partnership. We want to involve the community of Farmington in the Oakesdale-Farmington School District.”
A total of eight students attend Oakesdale schools from Farmington.
Dingman said that the Oakesdale board will ultimately decide if and when they will bring another bond proposal forward.
“I think it’s open for discussion,” he said, noting that February’s results showed a gain in momentum from when the same proposal went to voters in 2011.
This year, the bond drew 6 percent more yes votes for the same plan. But the state matching funds portion made the total bond amount slightly higher.
The next two election opportunities will be April 22 and Nov. 4 of this year.
“The board has to decide what they’re going to do,” said Dingman.
Farmington Mayor James Woomack said that the talk around town he’s heard reflect comments and questions in a public meeting in Farmington on Jan. 29.
Before the election, representatives from Oakesdale came to present the proposal and answer questions.
“There was nobody saying ‘vote no on this,’ but just that there could be a better approach,” said Woomack, who has two grandchildren who live part-time in Farmington and go to Tekoa schools.
He indicated that, while he couldn’t speak for individual voters, he said people have asked about spending that amount of money to repair a school when there was a possibility to consolidate districts and build one new school with a larger tax base.
“Perhaps there was a different way to do it that would benefit the children and the taxpayers,” Woomack said.
He went on to note that the public meeting in Farmington was conducted after ballots had been mailed from the county elections office.
“Many people had already voted before they (school representatives) came out here,” he said. “Even if there was somebody they could have converted, they had already missed the deadline.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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