By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

St. Joseph School Board President Seth Wright says voters sent a clear message with their overwhelming support of a 61-cent increase in the school levy.

“What it says to me is this community is ready to move forward,” Wright tells St. Joseph Post. “They’re ready to take a step forward. They’re ready to leave the past behind them.”

In November of 2017, voters soundly rejected a proposed tax increase of a $1.15.

This year, 7,819 voted in favor of the tax hike with 4,323 voting against, a margin of 64.4% to 35.6%.

School Superintendent Doug Van Zyl says now it’s the district’s responsibility to use the money wisely.

“And that’s what we’ve been saying from the beginning, just give us a chance, give us an opportunity to be able to show you the plan and now you have a plan in black-and-white that you can hold us accountable to,” Van Zyl tells St. Joseph Post. “And now it’s my administrative team and the board’s responsibility to stick to that and be able to move this district forward.”

Wright says the results overwhelmed him.

“My reaction is ‘wow.’ I mean, unbelievable how our community came out tonight, supporting our schools, supporting our community, supporting our teachers, our staff, and our students,” Wright says.

Van Zyl says the margin of victory really didn’t matter to him.

“To me, I’m just thankful it was one vote more than what we needed, because that’s what we needed in order for it to pass,” according to Van Zyl. “But I do think this helps send a message to our board and to our community that public schools are important and they want their students to be successful and they want this community to be successful and the margin of victory, I think, sends that message.”

There was a light turnout in Buchanan County with only 26.4% of the registered voters casting ballots at the polls.