School bond passing

Published 10:33 am Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Dennis Box-The Courier-Herald

The Sumner School District bond measure, Proposition No. 1, was passing according to numbers posted on the Pierce County Auditor's Web site Monday morning.

The updated numbers show the bond passing by the necessary supermajority with 4,776 yes votes, 60.64 percent with 3,100 no votes, 39.36 percent.

Early returns posted the morning of May 16, immediately after the election, showed the proposition failing with 3,852 yes votes, 58.24 and 2,708 no votes, 41.28 percent.

The bond must reach 60 percent or a supermajority to pass and the mail-only, special election is still very close.

There were 1,272 ballots counted during the day of May 16 and 891 were yes votes to 381 no, which pushed the proposition into the supermajority area.

The proposition asked for approval of an $114 million general obligation bond for a complete rebuild of Lakeridge Middle School, modernization at several other schools and money for land acquisition for new schools.

The same school bond proposition has failed twice before, most recently in February by 130 votes and in 2006.

The election will be certified May 30.

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.