A special meeting has been set for Wednesday, Feb. 17 for the Chimacum School District 49 Board of Directors to consider returning a construction bond to voters on Tuesday, April 23.

The bond on the Feb. 9 ballot is failing with 58 percent support when 60 percent is required. The election results are to be certified Feb. 19.

A regular school board meeting Feb. 10 attracted "far more than the usual number of audience members who expressed interest in the facilities issue," Superintendent Rick Thompson said in an email Thursday morning. "I did not hear consensus about changing the scope of the projects."

A bond issue may be presented to voters twice in one calendar year, with Chimacum's remaining election month options being April, August or November, or delay it until 2017. The district's replacement maintenance and operations levy is scheduled for a vote in February 2017.

Thompson said there was discussion to run the measure again on April 23, which would require a board resolution be filed with the Jefferson County Auditor's Office by Friday, Feb. 26.

"In order for the board to gauge the interest and determine the next steps," Thompson said, a special meeting is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17 in the Chimacum High School library "to hear public opinion and determine the scope and timing of any bond measure moving forward."

The current bond measure called for a $29.1 million bond issue to expand Chimacum Creek Primary School to an all-elementary campus, demolish the existing elementary school on the main campus, and make other improvements. The measure carries a 20-year cost to property taxpayers, with interest, of $48 million.

As of the latest ballot count on Feb. 10, the bond proposal is failing with 2,710 "yes" votes (58%) and 1,965 "no" votes (42%).

Chimacum's 2016 bond request is about $5.7 million less than a bond request rejected by voters in February 2015, with 51.5 percent "yes" and 48.5 percent "no."