KELLY VOTERS TURN DOWN $870,000 ISSUE FOR DISTRICT IMPROVEMENTS

BENTON - The Kelly Scott County R-4 School District's push for an $870,000 bond issue for school improvements, including additional classrooms, fell short of the needed majority Tuesday.

The measure needed a 58 percent majority to pass, but only about 51 percent of voters supported it.

A Scott County deputy circuit clerk said 277 voters approved the measure and 267 rejected it. In Mississippi County, where a small section of the district is situated, there was one vote for the measure and another against it, said Deputy Circuit Clerk Cyndi Hensley.

The totals were final in Mississippi County but not in Scott County, the clerks said.

Both Kelly Superintendent Michael L. Johnson and Tom Austin, who chaired the district's special advisory committee that researched needed improvements for the district, said they were disappointed.

"I'm extremely disappointed," Johnson said. "The voter turnout was very low, and that's what's disappointing because I just don't think the voters or residents of our district really know how crowded our classrooms are."

District officials sought to add four district classrooms, as well as a multipurpose building. The bond issue, in part, would also have expanded the district's cafeteria, replaced the floor of the original Kelly High School gymnasium, and paid for a heating system.

Currently the district has some classrooms with more than 30 students in them, which will prompt an "advisement" from the state, he said. An advisement, Johnson said, is like a warning that the district is violating standards set by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The state allows a maximum of 28 students in a classroom, he said.

According to Johnson, only about 25 percent of the district's voters turned out for the election, despite brochures that were mailed out on the bond issue and telephone calls by the district to every voter Monday night.

"So we did our homework. I don't know what happened. There's nothing that I can think of that we did wrong that we would do different if we we're starting out fresh tomorrow," Johnson said.

Austin said, in his mind, the district needed the additional classroom and cafeteria space the most.

"We're so short of classroom space now, we're packed in. They're using every crack and cubbyhole they can find for the classrooms."

The district's board of education will discuss at its meeting next Tuesday night how to address the situation from here on out, said Johnson. That could include the board resubmitting the bond issue to voters at a later date, he said.