A roundup of Tuesday election results for school bonds and levies:
KANSAS: For the first time in 30 years, the Kansas City, Kan., School District has won approval of a bond issue. The $120 million plan will pay for air conditioning and improvements to school buildings....Also, voters in the Shawnee Mission affirmed the district's decision to close two elementary schools, but overruled the school board's wishing in deciding to keep Arrowhead Elementary School open...In Topeka, voters approved a $24.5 million bond issue. More than two-thirds of the bond will be used to finance a sports park. The rest will pay for improvements mostly in elementary schools.
MISSOURI: Voters in the North Kansas City School District approved a $69.9 million bond issue to air-condition schools. They also approved a 27-cent increase in the district's operating levy that would pay to turn the air on.....The Kearney School District approved a $10.5 million bond issue to pay for more classrooms and improvements, including air conditioning....Belton School District voters approved a $14 million school bond proposal to relieve overcrowding at Belton High School and make other improvements.
ILLINOIS: Voters passed a $41 million construction bond referendum proposal for Elgin Community College despite labor troubles at the school. In School District 220, based in Barrington, a proposed $21 million tax hike appeared headed for defeat....A Tale of Two School Districts: Marengo, Ill., won approval for a new high school; Harvard, Ill., did not. Each of the McHenry county communities had a $32 million bond proposal this week to ease crowded classrooms....Eight time a charm: After failing seven times to win approval of a tax increase, officials in New Lenox Elementary School District 122 finally convinced voters that without more money, program cuts would leave the schools academically bankrupt. The increase means the district won't have to cut all extracurricular and after-school activities, music and foreign language classes and hand out pink slips to 46 teachers.
OKLAHOMA:Several Oklahoma districts won approval of bond issues. Clinton voters passed four school bond propositions to upgrade facilities. The last school bond issue to pass in Clinton was in 1983....Noble, Okla., voters gave resounding approval to a $13.9 million bond package that will provide funding for a new middle school and other district improvements.....Western Heights school patrons gave approvalfor a $13.85 million bond issue to pay for a middle school for the southwest Oklahoma City district....Elsewhere in Oklahoma, supporters of the tiny Leonard district in southern Tulsa County voted to keep the district operating by resoundingly approving three basic millage questions.
NEBRASKA: Lincoln voters rejected an attempt to override school district's tax levy lid. That means the board will have to come up with $2 million in additional reductions to its 2001-02 budget.
NEW YORK: Voters in the small elementary school district of New Hyde Park/Garden City Park have approved a $21.4-million bond referendum to pay for full-day kindergarten and help the schools become handicapped-accessible.
DELAWARE: Voters defeated a proposal in Christina School District to sell $24.9 million in bonds for school renovations. That figure represented the district's share of a $67.7 million proposal to renovate nine of the district's 11 elementary schools. The state would have paid the remainder, or a little more than $37.3 million.
