Michigan voters reject most May 6 school bond measures

Michigan voters exercised their right to decide whether they would let local school districts increase their property taxes. Most said no, though they approved a few large projects. The largest bond, however, lost by a significant margin.

Michigan Capitol Confidential tracked the fate of 30 bond requests that 29 school districts placed on the May 5 ballot, with a combined value of more than $1.6 billion. Voters approved 12 of the 30 requests, for a value of $584 million, but they rejected 18 requests that would have totaled more than $1 billion. The median value of a successful request was $27.8 million, while the median value of a failed one was $34.4 million.

The largest successful request came from the Dexter Community School District, based in Washtenaw County. Its voters approved a $241.9 million request by a tally of 3,461 to 2,681. In a pre-election flyer, the district said it would create a new theater, upgrade playgrounds, build a recreational facility and purchase buses, among other things. Another large-ticket request that voters approved came from Ferndale Public Schools ($114.8 million).

The balance of successful measures carried a much smaller price tag, with Wayne County’s Redford Union Schools obtaining voter approval to borrow $44.3 million. Other proposals that succeeded were for smaller amounts. Ferndale officials promised “transformational improvements to the Ferndale Middle and High School building” through projects that would separate high school and middle school students from each other. Redford officials said they would install new HVAC equipment and upgrade the infrastructure.

Most Metro Detroit school districts that approached voters — Ferndale, Redford, Southgate — won their approval to take on new debt. The Southgate Community School District in Wayne County won approval to borrow $28 million. But the Mount Clemens Community School District lost in its bid to borrow $91.8 million.

Officials of Midland Public Schools suffered the largest defeat. More than 68% of voters rejected a plan to borrow $285 million. A plan by St. Johns Public Schools in Clinton County to borrow $99.8 million failed when 62% of voters said no. Voters in three districts turned back three other ballot measures to borrow debt of $80 million to $90 million: Lamphere Public Schools, Reed City Area Schools and the Allendale Public School District.

One school system, Whiteford Agricultural School District, placed two measures on the ballot for a combined value of $7.5 million. Both failed. Fitzgerald Public Schools, which a state treasury department document indicated was holding an election in May and was included in an earlier CapCon story, opted to move the request to the August ballot.