Puyallup School District Bond Will Not Get Second Vote, Yet

There will be no bond election re-run, after the Puyallup School Board took no action in a special meeting on Friday that would have made the package up for a vote in the next available election on April 23.

Puyallup School Board president Chris Ihrig told The Tacoma News Tribune that the majority of board members felt it wasn’t “prudent” to go back to voters so soon after the bond measure failed in last month’s special election.

It’s been 10 years since Puyallup has approved a school bond. The $279.6 million technologies and facilities improvement package proposed to voters this February would have added capacity at the high schools, built a new elementary school for the southwest corner of the district and would have replaced or expanded other existing elementary schools.

If approved, the bond would have cost the owner of a $200,000 home approximately $148 per year.

Final results of February’s election were certified last week and showed that voters narrowly voted it down. A 60 percent supermajority vote was needed for the bond package to pass, and 55.5 percent of voters (14,679 total) said yes, while 11,774 voters said no.

The next election options for a Puyallup schools bond are the November general election or next February, when the district is planning to ask voters to re-authorize the operating levy.

Why do you think the Puyallup schools bond package failed to pass? What should the Puyallup School District do next? Tell us in the comments.