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Creston levy passes; Whitefish, Marion requests defeated

HILARY MATHESON | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 years, 11 months AGO
by HILARY MATHESON
EDUCATION REPORTER Hilary Matheson covers education for the Daily Inter Lake. Her reporting focuses on schools, students, and the policies that shape public education across Northwest Montana. Matheson regularly reports on school boards, district decisions and issues affecting teachers and families. Her work examines how funding, enrollment and state policy influence local school systems. She helps readers understand how education decisions affect students and communities throughout the region. IMPACT: Hilary’s work provides transparency and insight into the schools that serve thousands of local families. | May 3, 2016 10:05 PM

Unofficial results are in from Tuesday’s school election and Creston was the lone school district achieving voter approval of a levy request.

Whitefish and Marion voters rejected levy requests in their school districts.

Columbia Falls, Evergreen, Kalispell and Smith Valley school districts, meanwhile, held elections only for school trustees.

In a 107 to 80 vote, Creston School District voters approved a five-year building reserve levy that will bring in $15,000 annually or a total of $75,000 to renovate and maintain school facilities. The 187 ballots cast were out of 873 registered voters.

Approval of the levy will increase taxes by $16.65 on a home with an assessed market value of $200,000.

Voters rejected elementary and high school building reserve levies in Whitefish School District. The levies would have supported ongoing facility and property maintenance, renovations, repairs and technology upgrades.

Results were close for the elementary building reserve levy request: The vote was 838 to 811 against the request. The elementary levy would have provided $400,000 annually over seven years.

High school voters shot down a building levy request that would have provided $300,000 over seven years by a 982 to 754 margin.

There were 1,740 ballots cast at the polls out of 10,335 registered voters.

Voters living in the Marion School District rejected a general fund levy of $48,064 annually for the day-to-day operations of the school. There were 107 votes against and 101 in favor of the levy.

The 208 ballots were cast at the polls out of 993 registered voters.

In trustee elections:

In Columbia Falls, E.J. Hoerner received 635 votes and incumbent Larry Wilson 608 to win three-year terms on the School District 6 Board.

Incumbent Barbara Riley received 550 votes and Benjamin Shafer 513 to fall short of achieving either of the two terms on the Columbia Falls board.

In Kalispell, incumbents Mary Tepas with 1,915 votes and Anna Marie Bailey with 1,862 votes will retain their seats on Kalispell Public Schools board of trustees representing the elementary district. Both won three-year terms. Candidate Diane Morton Stout fell short with 1,790 votes.

Frank Miller won a two-year term with 1,607 votes to Rebecca Linden’s 1,355.

 • In the Smith Valley School District, incumbent Doni Bennett will retain a seat on the board with 93 votes. Newcomer Jerril Ren was elected to the board with 64 votes. The two seats are for three-year terms. Candidate Rand Norby received 34 votes.

One seat with a two-year term went to incumbent Richard Frank Sutton with 60 votes. Jonathan Sharpe received 29 votes and David Fairbank, 18.

In Evergreen, Tamara Williams received 238 votes and Dave Lowitz 225 votes to win two seats with three-year terms. Brant Karlstad received 105 votes.

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