Ballard Votes to Keep the School Doors Open
A special election saved two extra months of public schooling in Ballard, with voters approving a 3-mill levy 219 to 96 rather than let classes end on March 22.
A special election was held at Ballard between the hours of 12 m. and 7 p.m. Saturday on the question whether a 3-mill tax should be levied in order to create a fund to be used for continuing the public schools two months longer. The tax will be levied, 219 votes being cast in its favor and 96 against it. If the question had not carried the schools would have been compelled to close on March 22. The notice of election called for the assessment of a 3-mill tax, the law compelling the directors to include the 5 mills which are intended to provide for the expense of conducting the schools next year.
“If the question had not carried the schools would have been compelled to close on March 22.”
Ballard was still its own city in 1895, and voters treated schools as a local emergency worth taxing themselves for. Now part of Seattle, the neighborhood still lives with the same levy-and-budget questions about how long the school year can last.
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