by PJ Rooks
Landmark reporter

After the April 3 failure of a ballot question which would have increased the district's tax levy for construction of a new elementary school and upgrades to some other current facilities, Platte County R-3 School District representatives on Thursday night expressed a desire to move forward.

At the board’s regular monthly meeting, board member Julie Vanover thanked the Vote Yes Committee for their work on the levy campaign and shared the story of a friend who had taught in a district that underwent 14 rounds of voting before passing a levy increase, but noted that the end result was far better than the original plan.

Vanover said the district can revisit the plan and see “what we need to do so that the community is happy with it.”

“I couldn't agree more,” said Superintendent Mike Reik, adding that he had taken the opportunity during a recent meeting with administrators to discuss “what comes out of failure and in fact, success is born out of failure often, sometimes repeated failure.”

“We hope that's not the case for this school district given our pressing timelines but we are looking forward to the upcoming challenge,” he continued.

Reik said the district will still have to deal with current overcrowding and additional projections of enrollment growth.

“We asked our community a question and we got an answer and what that means is we'll continue to take the very best care of our kids that we can with the resources provided,” Reik said.

“I think the most important thing we can do at this point is re-engage our community and extend our campaign, and part of that is allowing a vetting process that frankly, we welcome. We had during the campaign some open meetings without much participation and I'm looking forward to moving forward into the next phase of our effort, engaging the community and working together on a solution that will meet with the approval of our community.”