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Show Voters authorize additional education expenditure Despite the conservative tenor of recent elections in Park City, the school district's voted leeway proposition pro-position was approved by a 150-vote margin Tuesday night. In passing the measure, voters have granted the Board of Education Educa-tion the right to levy up to five additional addi-tional mills when the school district budget is set next June. The schopl district cited three critical areas when asking voters to approve the increase in their property pro-perty taxes. The additional $421,000 would be used to reduce class sizes at the elementary school, raise teachers' salaries and strengthen the curriculum, the board said. "The voters have given the school district a challenge to make good on their commitments," said Superintendent Tony Mitchell after the first unofficial results were tallied. .... .. ., . . . ... , . Community schools The results of the preliminary count showed that out of 874 total ballots, 512 approved the voted leeway proposition and 362 opposed oppos-ed it. The official canvas will be presented to the Board of Education Educa-tion at a special meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Of the three polling locations, the voted leeway was defeated at only one.The tally at the Parley's Park ' Elementary School polling station for Precinct 7 showed 35 for and 44 against the voted leeway. The count at Pinebrook where residents of Precinct 10 voted was 100 for and 52 against. The largest turnout came at the Park City High School where 377 voters from Precincts 1, 2, 3 and 5 approved the ballot and 266 opposed oppos-ed it. Approximately 25 percent of the school district's electorate showed up to vote, said Mitchell. The unofficial tally was announced at 9:15 p.m. The district's campaign received strong support from members of the school community councils who helped to register new parents in the district, organized the ad campaign and called people to remind re-mind them to vote. "In all my years in education I've never seen such support for a school election," said board member Ralph Hale. "As I see it, the community realized we needed the leeway in order to become the best. In a small district you can really see results and I think we can follow through. I'm very enthused." en-thused." 'I think the results show, the in- telligence of the community but I also understand the concerns of those who don't want their taxes raised," said board member Nancy McComb. "I hope we use as little of the voted leeway as possible." "It is a vote of support for excellence ex-cellence in the school system," added ad-ded Mitchell. "There are some things we need to continue and many things to improve upon." He praised the efforts of the Citizens for the Voted Leeway Committee. Tuesday night, after hearing the voted leeway had been approved, the chairman of the Citizen's Committee, Com-mittee, Dan Hunter, said, "I feel great but it is just the beginning. Although the committee will disband, dis-band, we are all still going to work hard in the schools. I don't just plan to sit back. It's not just some dollars out there, it is our district's money and we can use it to begin to accomplish some of our goals." 1 ; ." iu',ii)i . ,'tn 1 linn hi ,. i ' |
