EVERETT — The Snohomish County Canvassing Board on Friday certified results of the April 26 election in which voters rejected funding measures for three school districts, passed them in two others and agreed on a new provider of fire protection services in Mill Creek.
Tough decisions await the Marysville School District where a four-year education operations levy failed by a final margin of 54.2% to 45.8% and a capital levy went down, 52.2% to 47.8%.
District leaders warned of budget cuts and layoffs of as many as 29 certificated staff if the education tax measure lost. The school board will discuss the budget impacts in a work session at 4 p.m. Monday. Notices to certificated staff must be sent out by May 13, per state law.
In the Stanwood Camano School District, a four-year capital improvement levy was defeated 52.5% to 47.5%. This same measure failed in February.
Similarly, voters in the Lakewood School District rejected a multi-year capital levy, 55.8% to 45.2%. The school board is slated to discuss the results next week.
There’s better news in the Granite Falls and Sultan school districts.
Granite Falls voters backed a four-year operations levy 51% to 49% and a capital projects levy 52.5% to 47.5%. Voters turned down both levies in February.
And in Sultan, they approved an education levy, 53.8% to 46.2%, and a capital levy, 53.3% to 46.7%. Both lost in February.
In Mill Creek, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to join South County Fire when the city’s current emergency services contract with a different provider, Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue, expires at the end of the year. Proposition 1 passed 75.4% to 24.6%.
Overall, 31,655 voters participated in the six contests. Turnout ranged from a high of 35.3% in Sultan to a low of 27% in Marysville.
There were 16,532 ballots returned by mail and 15,610 turned in via a designated drop box. In this election, 233 ballots did not get tallied because they arrived too late, 180 got rejected because the signature did not match the one on file for the voter, and 45 had no signature.
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dospueblos.
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