After a contentious campaign, voters in the Valley View, Ohio, school district said no to a 5.39-mill bond issue to build new schools.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, 54.6 percent of voters were against the measure and 45.4 percent favored the bond in Montgomery County.
The district had hoped to replace two school buildings built in the 1920s, an elementary school built in 1950 and a high school constructed in 1968 with three buildings on existing sites. The state would pay 53 percent of demolition and construction costs.
"We're disappointed," Superintendent Rick Earley said late Tuesday. "Now the bottom line is tomorrow morning we're going to educate kids."
Earley said estimates showed it would cost $27 million to build new schools and $39 million to renovate old buildings. He said it was too early to determine what action the district might take next.
"I think you have to step back from it and you have to re-evaluate everything from the very beginning and make decisions accordingly," he said.
The local cost for the owner of a $100,000 home would have been $188.65 per year, for 38 years.
The project was the subject of a divisive campaign, with some opponents disputing school district assertions.
The state rated all but the high school with their lowest rating of "poor" -- the only one of the five local districts with bonds on the ballot to have any schools rated "poor."
The high school received a middle rating of "borderline."
Earley has said new schools could improve safety, handicap access, science lab quality, technology options and spaces for project-based learning for the Germantown/Farmersville district.
School bond levies were turned down last November and in 2008. A community survey in late 2015 showed less than 25 percent of respondents were in favor of building new schools.
