Elementary school bond approved in Bigfork

Bigfork voters approved the school district's requested $5.5 million elementary bond but denied an $11.1 million bond for the high school.

The high school bond was narrowly defeated, with 1,333 negative votes to 1,249 votes in support of the issue. The elementary bond won by a similar margin: 1,001 voters approved it and 920 voted against it.

Of the more than 5,100 registered voters in the district, 52 percent participated in the mail election - one of the district's highest turnouts ever.

"We're pleased with the large voter response," Superintendent Russell Kinzer said. "That's a real positive indicator of the community's involvement. Even though the high school issue failed, I see it as a real positive sign when you have a stronger voter turnout on any issue."

Normal voter turnout is from about 12 to 16 percent in Bigfork, he added.

The district opted to use a mail election instead of a standard election for that very reason. Other districts that have mail elections have higher voters turnouts than districts that have a standard election at the polls, District Clerk Eda Taylor told the Inter Lake in September.

However, as far as election law is concerned, voter turnout in a mail election is a non-issue. Unlike standard bond elections, which require a 30 percent minimum turnout, elections by mail have no minimum turnout requirements.

The elementary bond will raise annual property taxes by about $95 for a home with an assessed market value of $200,000. A home with an assessed value of $300,000 will have a $143 annual tax increase.

District officials intended to use the elementary bond to build new middle school classrooms, science rooms and a new art room. Some money also would be used for primary grade classroom additions, to enlarge the kitchen and cafeteria, and to fix noise problems

in the library, and money from both bonds was intended to improve the campus' parking lots.

However, officials created those plans as part of a total-campus renovation. With no high school bond to help pay for site improvements, district officials will revisit their original plans, Kinzer said.

"We had viewed the project as a total renovation project, and now we're going to have to decide which steps to take - how to approach the overall project," he said.

The primary question is what to do about those site improvements, he added. The district's original plans called for separating the high school and elementary parking lots and creating separate accesses for each. The district also planned to widen part of Commerce Street to reduce the traffic backup that occurs at the end of each school day.

The district intended to use money from both bonds to complete those projects, Kinzer said. Now officials will determine whether there is enough money in the elementary bond to make those site improvements - or if they can use the bond for that purpose, since it will impact the high school as well as the elementary school.

"The design called for dividing the parking lots … and that's a critical part of the overall site improvement," Kinzer said. "I think we could make the case that the site is all one."

The school board, district administrators and architects will examine the issue as soon as possible, he said.

"I'm grateful that the elementary issue passed," he said, "but it does create some more decision-making issues that have to be addressed before we can proceed."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com