In an unanimous vote, the Renton School Board decided Wednesday night to put the “Building for a Lifetime of Learning School Construction” bond measure on the April 17 election ballot.

Board members said they did not want to lose momentum after the bond measure failed by a little more than 300 votes in the Feb. 14 special election.

Also, the other possible election dates did not look favorable for the successful passage of the bond measure, board members said.

The $97 million bond measure includes plans to build a new junior high and make improvements to the pool at Lindbergh High School.

The other possible election dates would have been Aug. 7 and Nov. 6 of this year. Superintendent Mary Alice Heuschel didn’t see either one of those dates as viable for the bond to pass. School is out in August, and November would mean competing with the presidential and gubernatorial elections as well as other measures, she said.

Had the school board not voted to proceed with the April 17 ballot, it could delay the construction of a new junior high by two years if the measure passed on a later ballot in 2013.

Grace Whiteaker, a parent and Hazelwood Elementary School PTA member, was happy the board decided to move ahead with the April election.

She had canvassed neighborhoods for support of the levies and measure for the Feb. 14 election and found voter confusion.

“The message that I got from a lot of people, as I was talking to them, was they had a very big misunderstanding of what (the bond) was going to mean in terms of taxes,” Whiteaker said.

Others at the school board meeting Wednesday night at Campbell Hill Elementary School agreed the message could have been clearer.

The levy approvals at 60 percent and the failure of the bond issue by just 300 votes were proof that voters support Renton schools, said John Galluzzo, the chair of the Citizens for Renton Schools Committee.

“Really what that says is we need to fine-tune that message and go back out,” he said.

The super majority rule was probably partly to blame, Galluzzo said. The super majority rule required that this bond get 60 percent voter approval and have a minimum voter turnout of 10,582 voters. Voters were confused about that, but also there was the confusion voters had on how to calculate the tax, Galluzzo said.

“I think we go out and we clear that up for a lot of people and I think that easily gets us votes,” he said.

The district estimates the cost of the bond will be 18 cents per $1,000 of assessed property valuation for the average home valued at $257,100. That would be about $46 a year.

At the meeting John Knutson, district assistant superintendent, gave a presentation on the Feb. 14 election results. The Maintenance and Operations levy passed at 61.71 percent and the Technology levy passed at 60.48 percent. The bond, even though it had a 58.08 percent approval, did not pass.

Knutson’s slide depicting the progression of over-crowding at the district’s three middle schools brought gasps from the audience. McKnight Middle School, with 1,152 students, is the third-largest middle school in the state, Nelsen is ninth and Dimmitt is 24th.

Whiteaker has a kindergarten student and second-grade student at one of the 14 elementary schools that feed into the three junior high schools.

She requested a copy of the visuals from the school board to make the same point to neighborhoods when she goes canvassing for support of the bond in the April election.

Sam Seid, a senior at Lindbergh High School, attended the meeting to voice his support of the bond and pool improvements that could come with the bond’s passage.

He is the swim captain of the Lindbergh team.

“I started off with basically the knowledge of how to swim and I ended this year being able to place at state in two different events,” Seid said. “So, the pool is a really big part of my life.”

Even though he’s not old enough to vote yet, Seid said he would enlist the help of his teammates and parents to educate voters.

The pool improvements at Lindbergh and the construction of a new junior high at the site of the old Hazelwood Elementary are two of the bigger issues on the ballot. Over-crowding in the interim is still a concern the district is trying to work through.

“There’s no more room for any portables,” Heuschel said. “It’s a very unfortunate situation. And, yes, we have talked about many many scenarios, because we have to prepare for the future.”

Options in the interim could include converting elementary or high schools to a middle school, which then could make the elementary become over-crowded, Heuschel said.

Despite the uncertainty of the upcoming bond on the April 17 ballot, Heuschel remains confident and thankful to Renton’s voters.

“I was thrilled at the level of support with all three (measures) actually,” she said. “You know the difference with simple majority and super majority is a challenge. But, to get that kind of level of support is common for Renton.”

Heuschel was not surprised because the community is incredibly supportive of public education, she said.

Considering the economic time that we’re in, she said, she was thrilled at the support. The ballots for the April 17 election should be in homes by March 28, according to the district.