TRACY — The vote for the $20 million bond referendum to expand the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton preschool to 12th grade facility did not pass in Tuesday’s election.

According to unofficial votes Tuesday evening, 55.95% of votes are counting against the bond with 1,128 votes, while 44.05% voted yes with 888 votes counted for.

The school district was looking to upgrade the recently-renovated public school after seeing an increase of enrollment that has caused overcrowding. There were three public listening sessions held throughout the fall to address what improvements would be and listen to concerns.

The facility underwent construction in 2019 with a $35 million bond that merged the three previous RTR schools into one, and opened in 2021.

Listed in the plan of new arrangements if the bill was to be passed was an expansion of 14 additional classrooms for a variety of areas including special education and functional life skills, enlarging the elementary music classroom, relocating the secondary band and vocal into pre-existing classrooms, additional student and staff bathrooms on each new floor and wing, full-size gymnasium, larger fitness center, larger storage room, a remodel of the existing fitness center into a counselor center, and an increase of security and control of the south parking lot.

During the second listening session held in the beginning of October, it was revealed that RTR has seen a 116 student increase in the last five years, about 60 more since the new building opened, and currently has 721 enrolled this year for PreK-12.

If the bond was to be approved, the bill would be split between taxpayers and the Ag2School tax credit, according to Marlette during the listening sessions.

Ag2School is a state-wide credit that districts utilize, and gives farmers tax relief while providing schools with building funding. Since approved, the credit will pay just over half of the amount, and taxpayers are responsible for 49.5%, meaning Ag2School will fund about $10.6 million, and local taxes will pay about $9.4 million.

The question on the ballot read as, “Shall the school board of Independent School District No. 2902 (Russell Tyler Ruthton Public Schools) be authorized to issue its general obligation school building bonds in an amount not to exceed $20,000,000 to provide funds for the acquisition and betterment of school sites and facilities … BY VOTING “YES” ON THIS BALLOT QUESTION, YOU ARE VOTING FOR A PROPERTY TAX INCREASE.”

One of the main concerns to the project was why the renovations were not included in the first reconstruction phase, to which administration has detailed that the construction took place with 575 enrolled students and was built with the intention of holding 700, which has now been passed and space has become limited.