Naas reflects on outcome of April 8 vote

Despite the failure of a tax levy increase on the April 8 ballot to fund construction of a new school, Northeast Vernon County R-1 School District Superintendent Charles Naas said it will be business as usual in the district, at this point.

"It was such a close margin," he said. "But, for now it's just business as usual and we're just going to keep trying on the levy."

Naas said initial reactions were somewhat mixed; but, overall, school officials are still positive about the possibility of getting the tax passed. "Morale's pretty decent. It was our first shot at something for the school to pass on its first try and we knew it was going to be hard the first time around. So, we're encouraged and discouraged at the same time."

Naas believes economics may have played a big role in voters' decisions. He said, "Its a big tax increase; and any time you're dealing with a tax increase, you're going to have opposition; so certainly the money side of it, the financial side, plays a pretty big role."

Election results from surrounding counties became available Wednesday morning influencing the final unofficial poll for three items on Vernon County ballots.

In the Sheldon R-8 School District board of directors election Vernon County voted Joshua Lamb, 52 votes, Bill Nance, 61 votes, and Gene Leininger, 72 votes, into seats on the board. However, 12 voters on the Barton County side of the line change the final results, giving one of the positions to Sam Castlebury over Joshua Lamb by one vote, 55-54. Vernon County Clerk's office employees reported that there could be a mandatory recount of ballots.

Nance and Leininger remained in the top three, each receiving two Barton County votes.

In the Hume R-8 School Board election, Bates County voters opted for Kristy Brooks, 77 votes, over Jeffrey Thompsen, 49 votes. Vernon County residents gave King nine votes; Brook, seven votes; and Berry and Thompsen 11 each. In the combined tally, Stacey Swickhamer took the majority with 133, followed by Brooks with 84 and Berry with 82.

El Dorado Springs R-2 School District had three counties involved in the election of the persons looking for seats on their board. Cedar County which holds the majority of voters within the district elected Dennis Whitesell, 587 votes, Darrell Eason, 520 votes and Matt Cross, 498 votes. Despite differing numbers from Vernon and St. Clair counties, which also have residents within the district, Cedar County voters outweighed the two other counties.

NEVC school board members are slated to meet on Thursday, April 17, to discuss the possibility of placing the proposed tax increase back on the ballot at a later date.

Naas said, "We don't have a board meeting scheduled until the end of next week. We're going to, of course, revisit the thought of running the levy again. We may run it again in August or November. We haven't decided that for fact yet, but that's just my thoughts for the moment."