FRANKLIN COUNTY -- Voters rejected a much-debated operating levy for South-Western City Schools Tuesday, according to unofficial results.
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NBC 4 got right to the point on the day after the special election.
Heartbroken. That described SWCS students Tuesday night as Issue 2 was voted down again.
Students, parents, teachers, school administrators and Issue 2 supporters packed the Activities Center at the Church of the Nazarene, waiting for what they hoped would be a reason to celebrate.
A widespread mood of hope turned to disappointment, sadness and anger.
“I’m really upset. I don't think it's really fair,” one student said.
Issue 2 failed with 16,055 votes (51 percent) against the issue and 15,344 votes (49 percent) in favor—with 102 of 105 precincts reporting.
South-Western City School officials conceded Issue 2 shortly after 9 p.m.
District officials have said that if the levy failed, students would lose all sports, bussing and many extracurricular activities and jobs would be lost.
The proposed 8.3-mill operating levy would have lasted four years, and homeowners would have paid an extra $254 in property taxes each year for every $100,000 of property value.
The levy would have raised $21 million for the area’s second-largest school district.
Now, the district’s some 21,000 students face a school year without sports, without band and without many other extracurricular activities.
“Disappointed. I don't understand how people can't support schools. I feel like this was our chance as a community to pay it forward. Someone did it for us. It's our turn to carry the ball for these kids and we let them down,” a district parent said.
“It's still hard. There's not going to be any sports or afterschool activities like student council, band or choir because that's people’s life,” Caitlyn Mountain said.
“You try to stay positive, stay away from the negatives, but there's a few people in this community that have some answering to do to these seniors and to all the students,” Paul Morrow said.
Some students said they would try to transfer to a new district.
“I don't know what I’m going to do now. Go to different schools, I guess,” one student said.
Others said they would stay put.
“Yeah, I could go somewhere else and play sports, but that's not as important as having people around me that I know are going to be there throughout all this,” Colleen Wurtz said.
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