Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Bond for new Fairfield Middle School fails, just shy of 60 percent threshold
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Community School District’s quest to pass a $38.5 million bond for a new middle school has come up just short.
According to the unofficial results released by the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office on Tuesday, Nov. 5, voters in the school district cast 4,102 votes in favor (57.95 percent) of the bond and 2,976 votes against it (42.05 percent). Though the “yes” side won a majority of the votes, it needed to cross the 60 percent threshold required for bonds, so the measure failed.
Results from the auditor’s office show that of the 7,078 people who cast a ballot within the Fairfield School District on Tuesday, 637 did not vote on the bond measure.
If Tuesday’s result is confirmed, it will be the second time in the last three years that the district has tried and failed to pass a bond for a new middle school. In September 2021, the district asked voters to approve a $34 million bond for a new middle school, plus adding air conditioning to the high school. Since that vote occurred during a special election, it drew far fewer voters, with 692 votes in favor (49 percent) and 721 votes against (51 percent)
The Fairfield school board asked the public to borrow money for a new middle school because of its ongoing maintenance costs. According to a fact sheet the district released in the summer, the middle school is costing the district about $1 million per year in maintenance costs, and estimated it would cost $40.4 million to renovate the existing building. School board members said the problems stemmed from the building, which opened in 1966, being built too low, causing constant water infiltration.
A fact sheet from the district indicated that, had the bond passed, it would have meant that a family with a $150,000 house would have paid an extra $175 per year in property taxes.
Fairfield school board president Tai Ward released the following statement after Tuesday’s vote:
“Thank you to all the people who worked very hard for years on this school bond vote. The community members, parents, administrators, teachers, school board... everybody who got us to 58 percent vote in a general election year that we knew would be an uphill battle the entire way. We may have fell agonizingly short by about 100 votes, but that kind of amazing support will come in handy as we move forward for the future of Fairfield schools.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
