Mount Baker School District employees can breathe a bit easier now — the district’s four-year maintenance and operations levy was passing after additional ballots were counted Wednesday.

The levy, which makes up about 20 percent of the school district’s operating budget, had about 51 percent voter approval, according to the Whatcom County Auditor’s Web site.

While all four bond proposals in Tuesday’s special election — from Blaine, Ferndale, Lynden and Meridian school districts — received additional support with Wednesday’s ballot count, they still were short of the 60 percent voter approval required to pass.

Maintenance and operations levies and technology levies need just over 50 percent approval to pass.

Richard Gantman, superintendent of Mount Baker School District, said he spent some of the day reassuring district staff after results released Tuesday night showed the levy failing by 49 votes.

“Here are the numbers at this point, and it’s important to not draw conclusions until we see final numbers,” he said he told staff members Wednesday morning. “The community has been supportive, and hopefully we’ll wind up where we need to be.”

The Whatcom County Auditor’s Office has counted 37,435 ballots out of 43,431 that have been returned, according to the office’s Web site. About 104,500 ballots were mailed to Whatcom County voters, meaning the voter turnout rate is about 42 percent so far.

Auditor Shirley Forslof expects more mailed ballots to arrive at the office today.

BONDS

With the bond proposals still failing, officials in those school districts had a day of meetings to discuss alternatives.

Officials in the Ferndale School District are trying to brainstorm ideas for Custer and North Bellingham elementary schools, both of which were slated to have major renovations funded by the $21 million bond on the ballot.

“Like anything else, when we invest a lot of time, energy and hard work and think you have come up with a win-win for kids, staff, and taxpayers, you’re disappointed,” said Superintendent Roger Lehnert. “There is no doubt work has to be done on those two schools.”

For the Lynden School District, the apparent failure of its $4 million bond proposal means the district will have to carry a non-voter approved loan that was used to purchase 30.5 acres of land for future middle and elementary schools last year.

According to Superintendent Dennis Carlson, the district has about a year and a half left under state law to pay off the $3.3 million loan, and interest payments will be coming out of the general fund.

“I think the election reflects a lot of concern over the economy,” Carlson said. “I’m happy our levy appears to be passing, and I certainly understand why people are concerned about taxes and things of that nature.”

Blaine School District Superintendent Ron Spanjer said he and the district’s staff were trying to stay upbeat Wednesday, even though the district won’t be receiving $40 million from this election — of which $30 million would have been used to renovate Blaine High School. Voters did pass the district’s four-year maintenance and operations levy.

“I’m certainly very excited about the levy results,” Spanjer said. “I think that Blaine has consistently demonstrated strong support for day-to-day operations of the district and we think the results we saw last night, while preliminary, are continued evidence of that support.”