Northwest Iowa — Voters have gone to the polls this Tuesday in three of our area school districts. And the two bond issues both failed.
Voters in the Rock Valley and West Sioux School Districts went to the polls this Tuesday and defeated two multi-million dollar bond issues. To be sure, the majority of people in both districts favored the bond issues. However, a simple majority is not enough. Both issues required a 60 percent supermajority to pass. And neither could muster the votes, according to vote totals from the Sioux County Auditor’s Office.
At Rock Valley, voters defeated a $25 million bond issue, which would have gone toward a high school addition to the existing facility. At West Sioux, voters defeated a nearly $15.7 million bond issue, which would have gone toward a new elementary school in Ireton.
The Rock Valley measure failed by 7.32 percentage points. The West Sioux measure failed by 2.57 percentage points.
Meanwhile, in the South O’Brien School District people voted on a Physical Plant and Equipment Levy, or PPEL. According to unofficial results from the O’Brien County Auditor’s Office, 212 people voted, and of those, 182 votes or 85.85% were “yes” votes, and 30 votes, or 14.15% were “no” votes.
The question asked was
“Shall the Board of Directors of the South O’Brien Community School District, in the Counties of O’Brien, Cherokee and Clay, State of Iowa, for the purpose of purchasing and improving grounds; constructing schoolhouses or buildings and opening roads to schoolhouses or buildings; purchasing of buildings; purchase, lease or lease-purchase of technology and equipment; paying debts contracted for the erection or construction of schoolhouses or buildings, not including interest on bonds; procuring or acquisition of libraries; repairing, remodeling, reconstructing, improving, or expanding the schoolhouses or buildings and additions to existing schoolhouses; expenditures for energy conservation; renting facilities under Iowa Code Chapter 28E; purchasing transportation equipment for transporting students; lease purchase option agreements for school buildings or equipment; purchasing equipment authorized by law; or for any purpose or purposes now or hereafter authorized by law, be authorized for a period of ten (10) years to levy and impose a voter-approved physical plant and equipment tax of not exceeding One Dollar Thirty-Four Cents ($1.34) per One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) of assessed valuation of the taxable property within the school district, and be authorized annually, in combination, as determined by the board, to levy a physical plant and equipment property tax upon all the taxable property within the school district commencing with the levy of property taxes for collection in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, and to impose a physical plant and equipment income surtax upon the state individual income tax of each individual income taxpayer resident in the school district on December 31 for each calendar year commencing with calendar year 2023, or each year thereafter?”
