HS school sets new election timeline

The Hot Springs School Board last week set a date for the latest effort to pass a levy in the school district. The board last Wednesday voted to once again ask voters to approve a levy of $183,000 for the general fund.

On July 11, a judge approved a petition by a school board member asking for the May 7 election to be voided. Five days later, the school board met and voted to call for a special election in accordance with the order by Judge John Mercer of the 20th Judicial District. Last week, the school board voted to have the new election on Wednesday, October 2. Ballots will be due by mail or to the school by 8 p.m. that day.

“The amount of cuts we have already incurred has adversely affected the kids, so hopefully it passes,” board chairman Ricky DePoe said at last Wednesday’s meeting in Hot Springs.

The school district has decided to run an all mail ballot election for October. In May, the school district chose to have a polling place location, allowing voters to come to the school to cast their ballots. Absentee ballots were also mailed, but an error occurred in which nearly 130 voters did not receive ballots for the election, prompting school board member Jen Christensen to file the petition to void the election after the election had been certified by the school board.

The school board last Wednesday discussed the need for the levy to pass. “We have a negative cash balance,” District Clerk Carmen Jackson said. “It’s not going to get us through the year.” DePoe said that the budget as it stands - without the additional levy funding - doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room. Superintendent Gerald Chouinard said the budget has been cut 26%. “We will continue to cut. We may have to cut positions into the year,” he stated.

“The fact is, it’s pretty grim,” DePoe said. “Luckily the judge gave us this opportunity to rerun the election instead of waiting until May. If this doesn’t pass, we’ll be even more in the negative.”

Jackson said the school board has tried to keep the levy amount as low as possible. “It will be tight for a couple years. We would have to leave it (the budget) at this level for awhile,” she stated. Chouinard, who has led the school district since 2020, agreed, saying if passed, “this would be a very solid levy amount.” DePoe noted that since 2021, the school has dropped about 40 students, with enrollment at about 200 students now.

“Our kids should be afforded the same opportunities here in a small school, but we take a hit because the funding formula is broken,” Taylor Salmi told the board when discussing the deficit at the school.

Residents asked why the school was running the election instead of having the county manage the election. “I wanted it here because I didn’t feel comfortable passing it on to someone else,” DePoe said. “The plan was also to save money on the election.” He expressed that there have been issues with the county running elections as well. “I felt like we could handle it better with us.”

In May 2023, Hot Springs asked voters to approve a $150,000 election. The issue failed by almost 60 votes, with 397 voters casting ballots. The county ran that election for the school district. Jackson said the thought behind a polling place election this year was that more people would turn out to vote. In the May 2024 election, there were less than 300 ballots returned, with 149 votes for the levy and 146 against.

Resident John Marrinan asked why the school was choosing a mail ballot election this time. “To avoid any mistakes,” Jackson replied. “We are putting safety measures in place so we don’t overlook voters.”