Madison Stuerman
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Hallsville School District said Wednesday that a bond issue approved by voters in April will not be certified by State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick.
According to a social media post, the district learned on Friday that the State Auditor’s Office will not authorize the bond issue.
The post by Hallsville School District stated the Boone County Clerk’s Office didn’t follow the newspaper publication requirements listed in state law.
The law reads, “If there are two or more newspapers of general circulation in the jurisdiction, but no two of opposite political faith, the notice shall be published in any two of the newspapers within one week prior to the election.”
The clerk’s office published the notices three and two weeks ahead of the election.
However, Fitzpatrick told ABC 17 News that he has not received Hallsville’s bond notice to certify it, but he thinks he knows the reason.
“I think it was in that that category of bonds that had the three-week and two-week notification and so Bond Council made the decision to not proceed with even submitting them to us,” Fitzpatrick said.
Brianna Lennon, Boone County Clerk, tells ABC 17 she feels in the dark to what her full guidelines include.
“We don’t get any guidelines from them. We don’t interact with the state auditor at all on any of these things,” Lennon said. “So if there are new guidelines, it would be wonderful if we knew what they were.”
Lennon also said she thinks it is important to give voters enough notice ahead of the election.
“Three weeks and two weeks vs. two weeks and one week gives us the extra grace period that if something were to happen with the newspaper and they didn’t get it in publication, but they’re a weekly newspaper, then we still had time to be able to get it in,” Lennon said.
Hallsville Superintendent Tyler Walker said he’s frustrated with the outcome.
“Our community passed a $6.5 million bond issue to support our students, and to rely on a clerical error that, allows for a statute to be enforced that is extremely outdated,” Walker said.
Walker said the board of education is looking at other options, including placing the bond issue on a future ballot.
“If we have to run another bond issue, we will do it. But we know that the community supports our school district, and we are so appreciative of that. So we will get to the finish line and get these projects completed,” Walker said.
The issue passed with 74% in April.
The Centralia School District also had a bond issue election that was passed by voters in April. According to the state auditor’s website, it was also published in the Columbia Missourian on March 18 and 25 and the Centralia Fireside Guard on March 21 and 28.
“We were relying on the on the representation of Bond Council that the publication requirements were met. When we looked and saw that there were two notices, we said, ‘OK’ and moved it on down the line,” Fitzpatrick said. “So that one got approved. It shouldn’t… frankly, it shouldn’t have been.”
According to Fitzpatrick, once a bond is certified, the state auditor’s role is complete, so Centralia’s bond approval will not be changed.
As for Hallsville, the district has until Aug. 26 to get its bond on the ballot for the November election.
The bond money for Hallsville would be used to complete the second part of a three-phase plan to address the growing student population, security upgrades and a new baseball field, according to the district.
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