after a year of accomplishments, including a climb from 35th to 19th in a state ranking of districts, the Hillsborough County school system awoke Wednesday with an unwelcome distinction.
Defeats are rare when school systems ask local voters to make up for state shortfalls in funding. Last year, 20 out of 21 such measures passed.
This year, voters in seven other districts — including Pasco County — gave their approval, some by huge margins. In Orange and Walton counties, 82% of voters said yes.
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In Hillsborough the vote was 49.86% for and 50.14% against — a difference so slight that the Supervisor of Elections Office will conduct a machine recount Friday morning
I can’t see anything other than more vacancies and even larger class sizes come January,” Newsome High School social studies teacher Brian Ayers tweeted.
School Board Chairperson Nadia Combs said the difference might be that housing costs are rising more sharply in Hillsborough than almost anywhere else in the state.