It appears that the Oak Harbor Public Schools bond measure will not receive enough votes to pass, according to the first count of ballots in the Feb. 14 special election.

About 53.8% of ballots were in favor of the proposed $121 million school bond measure that would have funded the replacement of three aging school buildings and enhancement of security throughout the district. The measure requires a 60% supermajority to pass.

The Island County Elections Office reported that 6,960 ballots were tallied so far and an estimated 1,200 are left to count. Only voters within the Oak Harbor school district were eligible to vote.

Currently, the turnout is about 29% of registered voters.

If the bond was approved, the tax rate was expected to be about $1.24 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which would be 30 cents less than what taxpayers were paying for the previous bond measure that expires in December.

One year ago, voters shot down a larger, $184 million bond measure. The proposal was pared and reintroduced to voters, but it appears that it will fail again.

If the bond measure passed, the district would have been eligible to receive 80% matching funds from the Department of Defense to rebuild Crescent Harbor Elementary and Hand-in-Hand/HomeConnections. The funding is only available if the voters approve the bond measure.