By Adam Stewart
Hutchinson Tribune Staff
HUTCHINSON—Cutting $73 million, years of repayment and plans for new middle school between 2025 and 2026 school bond proposals resulted in significantly higher approval from voters in the Hutchinson School District, but not enough to give USD 308 the green light on Tuesday, Nov. 3, as voters rejected the proposal, 4,769-4,639.
In an election with competitive federal and state races, both the yes and no sides saw four-digit vote increases. “No” gained 1,086 votes from the 2025 election, while “yes” gained 3,386 votes.
If voters had approved the proposal, the district would have been authorized to issue up to $36 million in bonds to build additions with gyms, music rooms and STEM labs to three elementary schools, replace several schools’ roofs, make HVAC updates to several schools and upgrade the security of both middle schools’ entrances, among other facilities projects.
The USD 308 Board of Education sought the bond issue when it did, in part, to keep the school district’s property tax rate steady, as an earlier bond issue is about to be fully paid off, rather than letting the property tax rate go down, then asking to increase it again.
The budget that the school board approved in August includes 10.704 mills of property taxes to repay bonds and interest. That amounts to $112.39 per $100,000 of a home’s appraised value.
The bond election result comes as the school board prepares to select its next superintendent of schools, as Superintendent Dawn Johnson announced that she will retire at the end of June 2027.
Precinct results
The vote results in every precinct in the school district were between 40% and 60% approval, with the lowest being 40.2% “yes” and the highest being 60% “yes.” Nine precincts were within four votes, one way or the other, of evenly split.
In the 2025 bond election, every precinct was below 40% in favor of the bond.
Three precincts near each other in northwestern Hutchinson together accounted for the 130-vote difference in the election. Precincts 4 (around Old Farm Estates Road), 7 (between 13th and 17th avenues from Main Street to Cow Creek) and 9 (around Rice Park and east to Monroe Street) voted 903-769 against the bond issue.
Turnout trends
Voter turnout in the bond election was divided fairly neatly along 17th Avenue. Except for Precinct 8, located between 17th and 19th avenues between Monroe Street and Cow Creek, no precinct entirely north of 17th Avenue had voter turnout below 50%. And except for Precinct 13-H102, no precinct entirely south of 17th Avenue had voter turnout above 50%. Precinct 8 had 49.9% turnout, and Precinct 13-H102 had 51.7% turnout.
Turnout was lowest in Precinct 21, north of Hutchinson Community College and northeast of Hutchinson High School, at 19.8%. Other precincts with turnout below 30% were Precinct 25, in the Grandview neighborhood and around the Commerce Gardens apartments, and Precinct 29, west of Rice Park.
Turnout was highest in the northwest corner of the school district, with Precinct 4 around Old Farm Estates having 66.7% turnout. Precinct 10, around The Wesley, and Precinct 11, around the Countryside neighborhood, also had turnout above 60%.
Overall, voter turnout in the bond election was 46.0%, nearly double the 23.3% turnout in November 2025.