Voters in the Le Mars Community School District said "No" to an Instructional Support Levy in Tuesday's election.

There were 1,708 no votes and 1,282 yes votes cast, for a total of 2,990 votes. The vote, 57 percent no and 43 percent yes, required a simple majority to pass. The vote is unofficial until canvassed by the Plymouth County board of supervisors at their Tuesday, March 25 meeting at 9:30 a.m.

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The Le Mars Community School board of education began the process to implement the Instructional Support Levy in December by passing a resolution. A petition by district residents put the issue to the March 18 vote.

The school district sought the tax levy, which combines a small portion of state aid (less than 10 percent) with an added 2-percent income tax and property tax increase, to help cover a 2008-09 budget deficit of about $500,000. The ISL, which would be in place for 10 years, could be used for any general fund purpose or expenditure.

"We're disappointed in the results of the election," Gary Janssen, assistant superintendent at LCS, said Wednesday morning.

"We feel in order to have a good school system, people need to be responsible to provide resources for it. We run a good education program."

"Cuts are going to have to be made," Janssen said. "As a result, some of the programs that we are proud of will be impacted in a negative way."

"As our school board members said, the first round of cuts are tolerable, a second round will be a lot more painful," Janssen said. "The second round cuts will directly relate to the students and programs and have a negative impact."

At their next meeting on March 24, the board and administration will look at the possibility of running a cash reserve levy to help fund programs and look at the expenditure side to see where cuts can be made. "It will be a tough meeting for the board," Janssen said.

Further cuts will come in the area of non-mandated programs.

Election workers were kept busy as an estimated 34.5 percent of registered voters cast ballots on Tuesday. While the largest number of ballots, 1,953, were cast in Le Mars, voter turn-out was highest in Brunsville, where 146 of the 44 registered voters, or 32.9 percent, voted. In Le Mars, 27.7 percent of the 7,037 eligible voters went to the polls to vote. In Craig, 111 of the 381 eligible voters, or 29.1 percent, cast ballots. Merrill saw 26.8 percent voter turn out, with 243 of the 906 eligible voters casting ballots.

According to Commissioner of Elections Cheri Nitzschke, election workers were also kept busy with new voter registrations and change of address forms for many voters.