Williamsburg, Central City school bonds fail to get voter support

Multimillion dollar school bond referendums failed to garner voter approval Tuesday in the Williamsburg and Central City school districts.

Leaders in both school districts say the facility needs remain, and they will need to reexamine how they are allocating the funding they do have available to them for facility improvements.

“Ensuring things like bathrooms are accessible to students and adults who need those accessible facilities … projects related to safety and security” will “have to be done,” said Lisa Glenn, interim superintendent of the Central City Community School District.

The $7 million Central City bond referendum would have funded a new secure entrance to the elementary school, classroom renovations and repairs and improve accessibility. Unofficial results show the measure received about 53 percent approval, far short of the 60 percent supermajority required to pass.

The almost $8 million school bond referendum for the Williamsburg Community School District would have modernized classrooms to better serve students enrolled in work-based learning classes in industrial technology, family and consumer science, and agriculture. It would have funded two additions to Williamsburg Junior/Senior High School and renovations to existing classroom space for the special education program and the auditorium lobby.

Unofficial results show the measure received about 46 percent approval.

“The biggest challenge for us will be finding a different path to the kinds of student experiences we were trying to provide thorough this proposal,” Williamsburg schools Superintendent Chad Graber said. “It will require us to go back to the drawing board and find a new way to create the career prep experiences we know are important.”

“I look at an election like this as really good feedback,” Graber said. “Certainly, I think there was great value in the proposal for kids, staff and the community. We also want to make sure as a district we’re aligning with the priorities of our community.”

Glenn said schools will “continue to provide the highest quality education possible.”

“It’s mostly about the people and their care for the students and our ability to teach, whether or not the current learning environment is completely sufficient,” Glenn said.

Neither Glenn nor Graber was ready to discuss the possibility of taking a new school bond referendum to voters soon.

The Williamsburg school bond already was a revised plan after a $22 million referendum failed to garner enough approval from voters in November 2024.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com