 Voters have denied the Castley-Biena School District a bonding referendum which would have built a new elementary school. Josh Peterson shares with us how the school district plans to re-evaluate its plans now. The results of Tuesday's election will send the Castley-Biena School District back to the drawing board. Voters overwhelmingly voted down a $37.8 million referendum that would have built a new intermediate elementary school for grades three through five and renovate its current building for pre-K through second grade. For the school district, the results came as a complete surprise. There truly was a surprise. We thought that we would do much better. We actually really believed that this referendum would pass, so it was really a great surprise to us at the number, the percentage of no votes. The vote failed by a wide margin of 442 votes to 144. Now the school district is left to re-evaluate its plans and how to maintain its current structure and programming. Because the referendum didn't pass, it doesn't mean that the needs go away. So we're going to have to just regroup, take a look at maybe some possible reasons why it was such a high percentage of the no vote. With the results of the referendum now in, it's back to the drawing board for the Castley-Biena School District, meaning staff here at the elementary school may have to get creative. Elementary school principal Joshua Grover says that changes will need to be made in order to accommodate a growing number of incoming students. Well, it's going to force us to be a little bit creative in our thinking, in our handling of the physical environment, in our personnel, trying to figure out where we can put children. The school also faces challenges of wait lists for students and trying to provide a space for all Castley-Biena children. We have a profound need to get kids the things they need educationally early on in their education and if they don't get that, we're finding less success. Overall, the school district says they will continue to move on and maintain the very best services they can offer its students. In Castley, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. And in the Pillager School District, a bonding referendum to build elementary school classrooms and an auditorium also failed. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.