Around 6:40 p.m. on Tuesday night, the Knox County Clerk’s office reported that the unofficial results of the main-in ballot Crofton School Bond Election indicated that the bond had failed to pass. Pending canvassing scheduled for Wednesday, March 13 – the bond had failed by a 230- vote margin – 669 against the bond and tax, and 439 for the bond and tax.
Adding the two together indicated a 1,108 vote return – out of 1,539 possible split between Knox and Cedar County voters in the school district. There were 1,040 Knox County voters possible, and 499 Cedar County voters possible in this school district boundary election. In Knox County alone – the vote tally was 326 for the bond and 444 against the bond for 770 total votes cast from Knox County.
The Cedar County tally indicated 113 for and 225 against for 338 total votes cast in Cedar County. All said, the overall response was 72% out of the 1,539 votes possible inside the school district area.
In the 2022 election there were 1,203 votes cast from the school district area – with a 770 against and 492 for eventual tally, 95 additional voters casting ballots in that election – with a 278 vote difference – indicating that the majority of voters had not changed their mind on the bond overall, at least in its presented form, even with the lowered total bond amount.
This second effort by the Crofton Community School Board had lowered the initial request to $12 million, down from the first special election in 2022 that also failed, at $18.9 million. That reduction lowered the levy request to around 16 cents, instead of 2022’s 24 cent estimate.
In October of 2023, the Board of Education issued a survey to poll citizens as to priority nature of projects, as well as to consider a total bond amount that would be acceptable to the most people. In that survey, 271 of the returned surveys indicated they would support a bond between $10-$16 million.
The Crofton Board of Education held its regular monthly meeting on Monday, March 11, and minutes indicated that there was discussion on “the next building project steps in the process, depending on either outcome of the vote.” The Board of Education’s next regular meeting will be on Monday, April 8, 2024 at 7 p.m.