DANVILLE — Danville voters denied the school district’s 3-mill, five-year permanent improvement levy by the slimmest of margins on Tuesday, according to final, unofficial results from the Knox and Holmes County Boards of Election.
In Knox County, the totals included 573 for the levy’s approval, while 581 voted against its passage, representing an eight-vote margin. Of 8,478 absentee ballots cast, 154 voted against the tax levy, while 143 voted for it, an 11-vote margin.
In Holmes County, which includes a sliver of Danville Local Schools, nine voted for the tax levy, while 12 voted against the levy, according to final, unofficial results from the Holmes County Board of Elections.
Those three margins have the levy down 22 votes with the provisional ballots still outstanding.
“It’s disappointing,” Danville Supt. Jason Snively said. “I really felt like we had more support than that. It is what it is.”
As the vote stands at the time of publication, “it’s not going to change what we do academically,” Snively said.
Had it passed, the levy was expected to fund improvements to the high school.
The Knox County Board of Elections still has provisional ballots and absentee ballots postmarked Monday to count, Director Peggy Hockenberry said. The results will be certified Nov. 22.
The board will count absentee ballots once they come in, Hockenberry said.
The margin for a recount is half a percent, and if there’s a recount, it will be after the official certification, Nov. 30 at 8 a.m., the director said.
The permanent improvement levy with a total of three mills collected would cost the average taxpayer approximately $32 more per year, per $100,000 in assessed property value, with .9 miles added onto already 2.1 mills set.
If the levy passed, projected plans included replacement of unit vents and ACs in the 1939-built high school, auditorium improvements and high school kitchen equipment.
Roughly $3 million has already been set aside for building improvements, which is being taken out of the general fund.
A major project on the docket is to replace a portion of the elementary school’s roof, built in 1965.
Check Knox Pages for other 2022 election results.
