Voters in the New Prague School District turned down the district’s request for additional local revenue for general fund operations Tuesday, Nov. 7, by 36 votes.
By a 2,471 to 2,436 margin, voters rejected a request for an additional $450 per student for 10 years, adjusted for inflation. The proposal, had it passed, would have added about $231 per year – about $19.29 per month – to the school district’s share of property taxes on a house valued for taxation at $350,000.
The proposal failed in all six areas where voters were casting ballots. The only place it passed was with absentee voters where it passed overwhelmingly.
School board chairman Matt Goldade said the loss hurt more than a year ago because it was so close. Last year, voters soundly rejected a request for additional per-student funding and additional money for technology. That request would have cost taxpayers just over $10 more per month than the measure voters rejected Tuesday.
About 20 school district administrators and supporters of the proposal gathered in the school board meeting room and watched as vote tallies were recorded on a whiteboard Tuesday, shortly after 8 p.m. The mood in the room shifted from hopeful to disappointment after the absentee vote totals were posted.
Superintendent Andy Vollmuth said he had two speeches prepared for the group before the final totals were announced. He told the group the results were not what he or supporters had hoped for or expected. He told the group he felt both the information and advocacy groups ran admirable campaigns.
“But everything is going to be alright,” he said.
Vollmuth said the school board and administrators will have to begin preparing for more belt-tightening. The board must now prepare for more spending cuts as well as negotiations with its teachers, the district’s largest group of unionized employees since about 81 percent of what the district spends goes for employees.
Additional information will be available in the Nov. 16 print edition of The New Prague Times.
Voters narrowly reject NP School District's levy referendum
