With both school levies apparently on their way to passing, the key word from the school community is \u201cgrateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re grateful and we\u2019re proud of our work on the campaign,\u201d said Dennis Higgins, chair of Citizens for Kent Schools. \u201cIt seems like voters recognized the school board and school administrators tried to be responsible in this tough environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of 4:15 p.m. Feb. 10 Proposition 1, the district\u2019s replacement maintenance and operations levy which constitutes 20 percent of the district\u2019s budget was ahead in early returns with 11,381 voters, or 53.42 percent, checking the box for passage versus 9,925, or 46.58 \u201cno\u201d votes.<\/p>\n
The margin is about the same for proposition 2, the district\u2019s replacement technology levy with 10,694, or 52.86 percent, voting to approve the measure versus 47.14 percent or 9,536 voting against it.<\/p>\n
Each measure requires a simple majority for passage.<\/p>\n
According to King County, turnout for the election is 21392 out of 74,670 eligible voters for a turnout of 28.65 percent.<\/p>\n
Turnout numbers should increase as more votes are counted.<\/p>\n
Superintendent Edward Lee Vargas called the levy \u201ccritical.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA big thank you,\u201d he said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
School Board president Debbie Straus also said she was \u201cgrateful for community support\u201d and said the passage of the levies, especially the M&O levy was critical for the school system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means we can continue to operate and give kids access,\u201d Straus said of the district\u2019s programs.<\/p>\n
She also added that the technology levy allows the district to continue to provide equal access to technology for all students, something only the schools can provide in a district with wide-ranging economic diversity.<\/p>\n
Straus also thanked all of the volunteers who worked on the campaign.<\/p>\n
According to Higgins, Citizens for Kent School, the group sent more than 20,000 mailers to voters in the district, put out 500 signs and made more than 21,000 phone calls urging residents to support the levy.<\/p>\n
Higgins said it was nice to see the entire school community work together after the contentiousness of this past fall\u2019s teacher strike.<\/p>\n
For further results of the levy vote visit http:\/\/your.kingcounty.gov\/elections\/elections\/201002\/results.aspx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With both school levies apparently on their way to passing, the key word from the school community is \u201cgrateful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19265"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}