Razor thin approval of second Moses Lake high school leaves community wrestling with $135 million vote results

MOSES LAKE – Conflict continues following the narrow passage of a $135 million Moses Lake School District construction bond last month.

Voters in the school district passed the bond last month which will build a second high school, make improvements to the existing Moses Lake High School, and add a new elementary school.

It passed by just three votes and prompted a group of voters who opposed the bond to ask that the results be overturned.

The closeness and controversy pushed the school board to initially move to vote yet again in late April.

The successful February vote was the third attempt in the past five years the board brought the bond to taxpayers.

The Columbia Basin Herald newspaper reported the board initially approved of a new vote when it was unclear whether the school bond would meet the 60 percent threshold to pass as the ballots were tallied.

Some residents are asking a judge for permission to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the Feb. 14 election.

The bond needed a 60 percent supermajority to pass. The final count was 60.03 percent out of 9,417 votes in favor of the bond after a daylong hand recount of ballots last week.

“We’re satisfied with the (County) Auditor, satisfied with the Board of Elections, satisfied that the will of the supermajority has spoken,” said Katie Phipps, lead petitioner and a teacher at Frontier Middle School.