The Tri-City United School District School Board voted on Monday, Dec. 22, to ask voters in the district again to pass the same $39.99 million bond that was proposed at the November 2025 single vote election. In November, the tax base that showed up to vote voted 926 in approval and 1,088 in opposition.
Guidance from the post-election survey of the tax base at the meeting was that generally there was support for the bond but that there were people who either forgot or didn’t show up to vote, as well as some people who didn’t understand aspects of the bond. It was also suggested those that voted against it were likely to not be in favor of any bond or taxes, most likely regardless of what the reasoning was.
It was noted that there is a lot of infrastructural work in the bond, which likely won’t change and would only go up in cost the longer it is waited for.
This decision to go out for the bond again as it is was not reached unanimously among the board with Board Member Trevor Houn the sole member showing opposition.
Board Member Marsha Craft said “To be honest, aren’t we fixing and putting a band aid on something knowing that we’re going to need that in the future. (Referring to cutting part of the bond items.) I would say we would still do it now. I don’t want to keep putting things off down the road. That’s why we ended up where we are at.”
Houn said, “The idea of what’s a need or a want is subjective. If the bond fails again, what’s going to change? Are we not going to have events here because of the locker room situation? Nope. Are we going to cut the weightlifting team? Nope. Are we going to cut open enrollment in Lonsdale if nothing passes? Nope. So, where’s the fine line? There’s not a fine line between needs and wants. It’s hard to, I had a tough time explaining this to people of needs and wants… I still have a hard time wrapping my head around $25 million dollars of infrastructure. It’s a huge number...