$14.1M LPOSD plant facilities levy gets voters' OK
SANDPOINT — A $14.1 million plant facilities levy passed with a last shot at the buzzer Tuesday, just slipping past the percentage required for approval by 42 votes.
Lake Pend Oreille School District Supt. Dick Cvitanich credits a grassroots community effort with the win.
“It was right at the number,” Cvitanich said. “We were just excited when it came in.”
However, he is cautiously optimistic about the outcome because the results will not be official until the votes are canvassed Thursday at 3 p.m. Opponents have a 40-day time frame in which to contest the election.
The levy passed by just .9 percent or 55.9 percent, receiving 2,777 yes votes and 2,193 no votes.
The measure needed 55 percent plus one vote for approval.
Not only was the election as close as the race for the Democratic nomination between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but it also is historic.
This marks the first time since 1987 that voters have approved anything other than a supplemental levy. Only one bond to build schools has ever passed here — this one in the 1950s.
“It’s just awesome,” said Doug Olin, a longtime district employee and assistant superintendent. “I’m speechless,” he said late Tuesday.
When the first numbers came in from Farmin-Stidwell following closure of the polls, the yes votes were ahead by a comfortable margin with 63.2 percent, however that margin steadily dwindled as polling site numbers were called in.
Typically, LPOSD school funding measures earn more yes votes in Sandpoint with that trend reversing the further a voting zone is located outside Sandpoint and as the evening wore on, that trend did not change.
By 9:30 p.m., the margin dropped to 58.4 percent as numbers came in from Hope, Northside and Sandpoint High School. Only one vote divided the yes and no votes at Hope, 96-95, while the no votes outnumbered the yes votes at Northside, 269 to 206. The vote at SHS was 384 to 180.
The margin in favor of the levy dipped even further after votes were turned in from Sagle, Southside and Washington Elementary schools, with Washington being the only school to post more yes than no votes.
The measure barely failed at Sagle with 458 no votes and 436 yes votes, while the margin was greater at Southside with 244 no votes and 148 yes votes.
At that point, the levy maintained a slim lead with 56.2 percent votes.
Then Clark Fork’s numbers came in at about 10:30 p.m., with the percentage decreasing even further at 55 percent plus one vote — the margin needed for approval. Almost half of the people at that precinct voted against the levy with 138 votes against it and 72 votes in favor. This brought the total vote to 4,028 ballots cast with 2,216 in favor and 1,1812 against.
It took almost another hour for the results to come in from Kootenai Elementary, mainly because the absentee ballots are counted there since it is the closest school to the district’s Ponderay office, said district clerk Julie Menghini.
Election officials also took their time at Kootenai, spending time to double check the ballots, Cvitanich said.
Absentee ballots are added to the Kootenai ballots and are not counted separately. About 350 people voted absentee, fewer than the 2 006 levy election which earned only 42 percent of the yes votes needed for approval.
A total 4,970 votes were cast in the election ; 2,777 for and 2193 against.
Fewer people turned out for Tuesday’s election than for the failed election in September 2006 when 5,140 people voted, Menghini said.
“It really was a community effort,” Cvitanich said. “This is a really big deal for our community.
Unofficial levy numbers
Clark Fork Jr./Sr. High: yes 72 no 138
Hope Elementary: yes 96 no 95
Kootenai Elementary: yes 561 no 381
Northside Elementary: yes 206 no 269
Sagle Elementary yes 436 no 458
Sandpoint High yes 384 no 180
Farmin-Stidwell yes 416 no 242
Washington yes 458 no 186
Southside yes 148 no 244