The cuts were approved at the October board of education meeting. During Tuesday’s election, Big Walnut Local School District voters kicked those cuts in gear.

It was close, but voters failed to approve a 6.7-mil emergency-operating levy that would have allowed the school district to avoid more than $3 million in cuts needed to prevent deficit spending during the 2010-11 school year.

Close is an understatement — 3,647 voters said “Yes” on Tuesday, while 3,734 voters said “No.” The levy failed by 87 votes.

The final tally will change slightly, said Delaware County Board of Elections director Janet Brenneman.

The tally reported Tuesday evening at the board of elections and online represents all votes cast at Big Walnut’s 22 precincts, plus absentee ballots; but the results did not include provisional ballots.

Brenneman said provisional ballots take as long as 10 days to verify. As of press time, she did not have an approximate number of provisional ballots that were cast. But with a slim 87-vote margin, there is a slight chance it could change the election outcome.

Big Walnut superintendent Steve Mazzi said he was obviously disappointed in the election outcome.

“I think the voter’s response to the levy request is reflective of the economy, rather than the job Big Walnut does in educating its students,” Mazzi said. “But the board of education adopted a list of cuts to trim the budget so we can end the next school year in the black.”

Pam Lillie and Allison Fagan were elected to terms on the board of education, Verna Hines was re-elected to serve a second term; Ron Hobelman’s bid for a second term was denied by voters.

“With a new board make-up sitting at the table in January, discussion will have to center around going back on the ballot in May for a larger millage, or ways to make deeper budget cuts,” Mazzi said. “The reality of it is we cannot run the school district on the revenue stream currently provided by the community. Without additional revenue this school district is going to look drastically different than it does today. There’s no secret formula – additional revenue or deeper cuts.”

With 7,381 votes cast and the levy losing by only 87 votes, Mazzi said Tuesday’s election was a perfect example of every single vote counting.

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