SCHOOLS’ ‘NICKEL’ TAX SOUNDLY DEFEATED

For the second time in the past four years, the Adair County Board of Education's attempt to enact a "nickel" tax to build a new school and fund other construction projects has been soundly defeated by the voters -although the margin of defeat in Tuesday's election was not as bad as it was in 2005.
The final tally was 1,939 "No" votes to 1,156 "Yes" votes, a margin of 783 votes. The margin voting against the proposal in 2005 was almost three-to-one.
The "Yes" voters carried only two of the county's 16 precincts - South Columbia #2 (101-36) and East Columbia (131-128) - and the vast majority of the "Yes" votes came in precincts in and around Columbia.
The "No" voters were very strong in precincts out in the county, especially so in the precincts where the three elementary schools that were closed (Knifley, Shepherd and Sparksville) were located. The "No" voters carried the Knifley-Roley precinct 107-9, Sparksville-Breeding 125-34, White Oak 112-13, Eunice-Pellyton 125-7 and Little Cake 117-42.
Adair County Superintendent of Schools Darrell Treece, who was present for the vote count along with school board members Mike Harris and Floyd Burton, said he was disappointed with the tax measure's defeat.
"I'm extremely disappointed," Treece said. "Not for myself or the board members, but for the children. But, we will continue to do everything we can to educate the kids with what we've got."
When asked if they will try to make improvements to Col. William Casey Elementary now that it won't be replaced, Treece stated, "All we can do is try to keep the leaks stopped and the systems running, but we are about to run out of options."
The superintendent said that they will now have to look at the reconfiguration of the schools - shifting some students from one school to another - more seriously.
"We have a committee appointed to study reconfiguration, and we've had a couple of meetings and started looking at it, but we haven't gone very far," he explained. "We're going to have to look more seriously at shifting students with what buildings we have."
Only about 25 percent of the county's 12,521 registered voters turned out to cast ballots on Tuesday, which was almost 100 less than the 3,192 voters who voted in the 2005 special "nickel tax" election.
"From the way things started out this morning, I thought there was going to be a heavier turnout," County Clerk Sheila Blair said Tuesday night. "The Hurt precinct had already used over half of their paper ballots by 9:30, and we had to have more printed for that precinct and a couple of the other larger ones. But, the turnout slacked off later in the day. Most people must have gone to the polls early." Photo:JOE RUSSELL BARBEE prepared to cast his vote by putting the paper ballot he had marked into the new E-Scan voting machine at the Hurt precinct Tuesday morning during the special election concerning the Adair County Board of Education's "nickel" tax referendum. The tax was voted down for the second time in four years. (Photo by Paul B. Hayes)