The Oldham-Ramona-Rutland school district has narrowly survived a dissolution vote.
According to the Brookings Register, unofficial results from Tuesday’s election showed a tie. On election night, tallies showed 363 voters supported dissolving the school district and 363 opposed it. That included four provisional ballots.
Then on Wednesday afternoon four provisional ballots were counted. All four were certified and were against dissolution. That pushed the final tally to 367 against dissolution to 363 for. The school board signed and certified the official results Wednesday night.
The largest push to dissolve the district came from a precinct site in Rutland, where 216 voters voted to dissolve. At an Oldham precinct, nearly 71% of voters wanted to dissolve the district.
The dissolution plan comes following a petition to dissolve the district by local group Rural Students, Real Opportunity. The primary reasons being the cost to build a new school on property taxpayers following numerous failed attempts to get voter approval for the project. People from the Oldham, Ramona and Rutland areas voted three times on bonds to build a school along Highway 81 at a spot central to the entire district. Each vote reached a simple majority but failed to receive the necessary supermajority. After those three votes, the district was approved for $20 million in capital outlay certificates to demolish and rebuild it in the current condemned Romana school building. The board decided to put out a fourth bond vote to try one more time for the central location. It failed again .The school board has since turned to the existing site in Ramona for demolition and rebuilding of a new school.
A circuit court judge halted work on the project in August based on issues with the capital outlay certificate votes.
The dissolution election could face a recount petition as four votes is well within the margin required for a recount.
