With only seven of 32 precincts voting yes, the school bond levy failed to pass Tuesday, with uncertified results being 2,958 for and 4,194 against.
“We hoped the children of Mineral County would have received this money,” said Superintendent of Schools Tilden “Skip” Hackworth early Wednesday morning at a packed Mineral County Courthouse. “Now, children in another county will benefit from the money.”
A larger-than-expected turnout and time-consuming tallies by both paper and electronic ballots resulted in early-morning numbers.
These results mark the third time Mineral County residents have voted on a school bond levy in four years.
February’s special election on the school bond levy ended in defeat with 1,701 voting against the levy, 1,558 for the levy — 143 votes from passing.
During the Primary Election in May 2004, more residents were against the passing of the bond than in recent elections, with 2,606 for the bond and 3,590 against — a deficit of 984.
The 2004 election was the first time a school bond levy was voted on since the passage of the last one in 1973, according to Superintendent of Schools Skip Hackworth.
If the bond would have passed, the county school system would have received $9 million dollars from the West Virginia School Building Authority, which was awarded at a special meeting held April 21 in Charleston.
This money was “contingent upon the passage of the school bond election,” Hackworth previously said about the money that was planned to be disbursed by $4,500,000 per year for two years.
This was a portion of the $88 million that was earmarked for special projects in 18 counties.
Since the failure of the bond, that $9 million is going to be disbursed to another West Virginia county.
The bond, according to Hackworth, was set forth to ensure the existence of small schools in each community of the county as well as the de-consolidation of the presently overcrowded Keyser Primary-Middle School.
Hackworth says there is currently no classroom space to accommodate the growing  population of students – the number one reason why the passage of the bond was so necessary in the county.
“We’re just out of classroom space,” said Hackworth, who noted the over 1,300 Keyser primary and middle school students currently sharing the same building.
“The population of students  currently attending Keyser Primary Middle School is higher than the population of  eight county school systems,” said Hackworth at a community meeting on the bond held May 5 at KPMS.  “It is extremely over-crowded and most of the classrooms are inadequate in size and to to access several of the classrooms, you must go through one or two other classrooms. Obviously this disturbs the teaching and learning process and does not provide the most secure environment.”
In addition, if the bond would have passed, grades three and four would have remained at the school with the construction of an additional classroom, cutting out the over 45 minute bus ride for students.
“Those students have a very, very long bus ride,” said Athey, back in April.  “The ones who ride from Carpendale have the furthest trip and are on the bus for 45 minutes or more with stops to Frankfort Intermediate. Our goal is to bring them back here with the new addition that will be built to keep students in their hometown.”
With the third defeat of a school bond levy since 2004, the Mineral County Board of Education will consider the purchase of movable buildings to be placed at various schools across the county to address the growing student population and lack of classroom space.
In July, what is predicted to be a changed school board will readdress the options now available.
The ballots will be canvassed by the county to garner official results.