For those who campaigned in support of the Tahoma School District construction bond measure, which was rejected by voters April 26, its failure was a blow on many levels.

Members of the Voice of Tahoma Education committee as well as the district’s Board of Directors are left now to figure out why the measure failed and what needs to be done in the wake of those results.

Board President Mary Jane Glaser said the results were a disappointment.

“At the heart of the concern is providing the optimum learning environment for students,” Glaser said. “As our schools become more crowded, how are we going to provide an optimum learning experience?”

Glaser pointed out that 25 percent of Tahoma students spent significant portions of the school day in aging portables.

Add to that the fact the state legislature suspended I-728 funding that helps lower class sizes and overcrowding at Tahoma Junior High as well as several of the districts elementary schools and the failure of the bond measure is that much more disappointing.

During the next nine years, Glaser said, the district’s demographers predict 1,400 more students coming into the district.

Glaser said she’s not sure why, despite an appearance of greater support for the measure than previous elections, people chose to vote against it. The measure needed to garner 60 percent approval and drew about 52 percent.

“One thing I take away from this bond campaign was how I felt more people became education about the school district, how it operates and more about its needs than before,” Glaser said.

“It’s very sobering, of course, but we will make the best decisions we can in the light of less economic support.”

While the school board considers its next step, district staff is finalizing the budget, but is still waiting on the final budget to come from Olympia.

Part of the bond measure were a number of maintenance projects to replace aging boilers, faulty siding, among other projects, things that can’t wait for another bond measure — if that even happens — or the economy to improve.

“I anticipate that’s going to be one of our more immediate decisions to make,” Glaser said. “What are we going to do? How are we going to make those repairs? How are we going to pay for them?”

District spokesman Kevin Patterson explained that staff asked the architect who designed the projects included in the bond measure to break out the maintenance projects so they can be ranked in order of priority, “then we look at what we can do with the money at hand, which we don’t have a lot of.”

While immediate needs are considered there is also much discussion of how the bond measure could have failed.

At first blush, the obvious answer is the state of the economy, especially considering all 12 school district measures on the ballot across the state failed including those with smaller dollar amounts.

“There are a lot of factors playing into how it didn’t pass,” said VOTE committee co-chair Erin Weaver. “This is just a hard time for people to commit to spending money when so many people in the city are uncertain about their own futures. For those who chose to vote no for those reasons, I totally respect that.”

Weaver, who also is a member of the Maple Valley City Council, suspects that community members figured it wasn’t a big deal if the measure didn’t pass.

“The history in this district is if they don’t pass a measure, they’ll cut out the fluff and run it again,” she said. “The reality is in this bond measure, this is what they need, there isn’t anything to cut.”

An auditorium at Tahoma High, for example, may seem frivolous to some, Weaver said, but it would have knocked $2 off the amount taxed someone with a $300,000 home. The district calculated taxpayers would have given about $33 a month to pay off the bonds.

“The bulk of this bond measure was about space,” Weaver said. “We have to have space. We need a new elementary. We need a new wing at the junior high and the high school. There is overcrowding and that is not going away.”

The question now is what’s the next move for the school board?

Weaver said, “The school board and the school district have some tough decisions to make. The more we can get people to come out and share what they think the school board, the more we can get groups throughout our community, if we’re all talking to each other and we all understand the challenges, then we have a better chance of creating solutions.”

Patterson said on Monday night the board discussed creating a citizen committee to evaluate long range responses to the bond failure.

“The board will focus for now on short term maintenance issues that need to be addressed,” Patterson wrote in an email. “The school board discussed the bond measure (Tuesday) night and decided to go ahead with formation of an ad hoc citizen committee to assist the board in identifying viable options to operate schools that will be crowded beyond capacity within the next few years. They want the committee to do an extensive review of alternative scheduling … as well as potential construction bonds in the future. They want to create the committee before the school year ends and have it meet during the summer and into fall.”

Patterson added that the tentative deadline for work the committee to submit a report to the board would be October.

“At the same time, the school board will begin looking closely at the major maintenance issues throughout the district to create a priority list,” Patterson wrote. “The board will consider how to meet these needs, including the possibility of a capital projects levy that would run for a maximum of six years. There are about $10 million in major maintenance projects under consideration at this time, including roof replacement, siding replacement and HVAC upgrades at several schools.”

One solution that is not under consideration is running another bond measure any time soon, Glaser said.

Among the options the board will likely consider are alternative schedules such as year round school and double shifting. It is not yet clear at this time if those schedule changes would occur in the fall when the 2011-2012 academic year begins.

“It’s probably too soon to say what we are going to do,” Glaser said. “It’s not going to be a knee jerk reaction. We need to address the failure. We need to move forward and address the issues with the resources that we have. We’re going to make the decision and it’s not going to make anyone happy.”