By Jennifer Mrozowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Superintendent Alton Frailey celebrates the passage of Issue 3 Tuesday night. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

A $480 million bond issue for the biggest public works project in Cincinnati history - a plan to rehab 66 city schools - was approved in a close vote Tuesday night.

With 100 percent of the district's 440 precincts reporting, the unofficial vote was 24,716 in favor to 22,550 against, or 52 percent to 48 percent.

The victory makes Cincinnati eligible for more than $210 million in state funds for the nearly $1 billion decade-long construction project.

"The sun has shone on Cincinnati," said Superintendent Alton Frailey shortly before 10 p.m. at campaign headquarters in Bond Hill."You have shown me what you are really like, and I like what I see.

"Today the voters have shown the children of Cincinnati they will be educated in quality facilities. We can now turn on the computers - all of them - and turn on the lights at the same time."

Supporters say the project will do more than overhaul crumbling, outdated schools. They say it will rejuvenate neighborhoods throughout the city by creating community learning centers open day and night and on weekends for public use.

WINNERS & LOSERS

Carlisle Schools 1 percent income tax: Passed. Fairfield City Schools 2-mill permanent improvement replacement levy: Passed. Franklin City Schools $16.7 million bond issue: Failed. Kings Local Schools $43 million bond issue: Failed. Mount Healthy School District 6.95-mill operating levy: Failed. Milford Exempted Village Schools 5.9-mill operating levy: Passed. Princeton City Schools $85 million bond issue: Passed. Wayne Local Schools 10-mill emergency operating levy: Failed. • Election results from WCPO

WHAT VOTERS SAID

"I voted for it. I believe the kids would act better if they don't have crumbling buildings and busted pipes and if they don't have to walk through floods to get to their classrooms." - Kim Eberhart, 43, Bond Hill "If it costs money, I'm against it." - Jim Winterhalter, 71, Westwood "I'm not voting for it because I don't like the results I see. I'm more for vouchers and giving parents the right to say, 'I don't like what's going on here.' " - Lisa Givens, 38, Bond Hill "I voted for the levy. I'm a retired school teacher and have been around long enough to see the needs." - Gloria Childress, 68, Bond Hill "I can't see putting $480 million tax dollars into a system where teachers won't agree to be paid for their performance." - Phil Heimlich, Hamilton County commissioner

HISTORY OF LEVY

Results of Cincinnati Public Schools levies and bond issues since 1990: 1990: 7.21-mill, 5-year new operating levy, failed 1991: 9.83-mill, 5-year new operating levy, passed 1993: $348 million bond issue, failed 1994: 0.74-mill, 5-year maintenance levy, passed 1994: 3.73-mill, 5-year operating levy renewal, failed 1995: 3.74-mill, 5-year operating levy renewal, passed 1995: 5-mill, continuing new operating levy, passed 1996: 8.8-mill, 5-year operating levy renewal, passed 1999: 4.5-mill, continuing new operating levy, failed 2000: 6.5-mill, continuing new operating levy, failed 2000: 10.94-mill, 5-year operating levy renewal, passed 2000: 6-mill continuing new operating levy, passed 2002: $480 million bond issue, failed

ABOUT BOND ISSUE

What: 4.61-mill, 28-year bond issue to raise $480 million. Why: To build 35 schools and renovate 31 others over the next 10 years at a total cost of $985 million. By project's end, the district will operate 14 fewer buildings than in 2001. Other funding: $210 million contribution from the state if voters approve a local share; $295 million from existing district revenues. Cost to a homeowner: An additional $135 per year in new taxes on a home valued at $100,000. Buildings to be renovated: North Avondale, Oyler, Sayler Park, Cheviot, Dater Montessori, Gamble, Westwood, Chase, College Hill, Academy of Multilingual Immersion Studies, Roselawn Condon, Woodford, Bloom, Rothenberg, Taft Elementary, Hartwell, Central Fairmount, Hyde Park, Kilgour, Mount Washington, Douglass, Parham, Aiken, Clark, Dater High, Hughes, Jacobs, Taft High, Walnut Hills, Western Hills, Withrow. Buildings to be added: New Windsor/Hoffman school, new military academy, new East End school, new Price Hill school. Buildings to be rebuilt: Burton, Clifton (for Fairview German program), Rockdale, South Avondale, Carson, Quebec Heights, Roberts, Whittier, Covedale, Midway, Mount Airy, Pleasant Hill, Schwab, Winton Hills, Bond Hill, Losantiville, Pleasant Ridge, Silverton, Hays, Porter, Washington Park, Millvale, Roll Hill, Bramble, Eastern Hills (to house Sands program), Parker, Academy of World Languages, Heinold, School for Creative and Performing Arts, Woodward, Eastwood. Buildings to close: Carthage, Shroder, Fairview, Heberle, Hoffman, Kirby Road, Linwood, McKinley, North Fairmount, former Sands in West End, Schiel, Swifton, Vine, Washburn, Windsor, former Winton Place on Winton Road

As final results rolled in, supporters formed a circle around a podium where Frailey was poised to reveal the outcome.

Campaign officials wrote the results on a large notepad that was placed on an easel but covered them with another piece of paper.

As the crowd waited anxiously, Frailey stripped off the paper in dramatic fashion.

Written on the notepad were the winning figures and the words "Thank you Cincinnati."

The crowd broke into applause, shouts and whistles. Some people started dancing; and Frailey, with tears in his eyes, began giving high-fives, hugging staff members and parents.

The bond issue will help finance a plan to build 35 new schools and renovate 31 others.

Owners of a home valued at $100,000 will pay an additional $135 in property taxes annually.

"If we get this thing reaching anywhere near its potential, we'll have people moving back to the city to avail themselves and their children of programs and a community life unavailable in the suburbs," said school board member Jack Gilligan.

School officials, parents, teachers and other supporters were elated, especially after a razor-thin defeat of a bond issue for the same amount in November.

"All day I felt really positive about the chances of passing, and I felt that way for the last few weeks," said Carolyn Turner, executive director of Cincinnati Parents for Public Schools, an advocacy group.

"The facilities we expect our children to learn in are not facilities you would even want to work in."

The November issue failed by 611 votes out of more than 90,000 ballots cast.

School board President Sally Warner said groundbreaking for the first school to be rebuilt - Rockdale Elementary in Avondale - is planned for as early as this month.

Rockdale is one of 17 schools to be renovated or rebuilt in the first phase of the four-segment project.

By project's end, the school district will operate 14 fewer schools.

Architectural work on some of the 17 schools in the first segment is under way.

"This means that not only can we have quality teachers but those quality teachers will have quality environments in which to work," said Sue Taylor, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers.

"This means that drafty rooms and cracked windows bringing in the winter cold will not impede learning. It means that the children of Cincinnati will have equal facilities as the children in the suburban areas."

Some opponents said the school district should have finished the first segment and demonstrated financial responsibility before asking voters for money to finance the entire building plan. Others said the school district should concentrate on improving academics instead of fixing buildings.

Jim Urling, chairman of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, an anti-tax group, bemoaned the win.

"A vote for the bond issue is a vote for the continued corruption of the school board," he said. "The kids still aren't going to be educated. They'll just have ignorance in nice school buildings. They'll have a nice veneer on a poor educational system."

Bill Dobson, campaign director, said the win is the result of efforts by a diverse group that worked tirelessly to solicit support.

"We spent a lot of energy seeing who the voters are, and out of that group, who the yes voters are," he said. "We communicated with those people in every way possible."

That included more than 120,000 telephone calls, 324,000 pieces of mail and literature dropped off to 40,000 homes. Supporters also knocked on thousands of doors across the city.

Having a broad and diverse group where everyone had a stake made a difference, Dobson said.

To spread the word, the campaign enlisted help from many sectors by appointing nine co-chairs. Organizations represented included Cincinnati Parents for Public Schools and the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati. Mayor Charlie Luken also served as a co-chair.

The campaign this year encouraged organizations to go beyond just endorsing the bond issue.

The Urban League, with the help of the NAACP, the Amos Project and Baptist Ministers Conference of Cincinnati, arranged a free service to pick up would-be voters.

Election workers said turnout was low despite temperatures that reached 76 degrees and a day that escaped potential thunderstorms.

Eileen Winterhalter, 65, of Westwood voted against the school issue.

"I think they just waste too much money," she said. "And a new school doesn't make brighter students."

Supporters, though, said the dismal condition of the schools, which are 61 years old on average, outweighed the extra tax cost.

"I think we need it," said Westwood resident Anne Gaynor, 49. "The schools are in bad shape. It's kind of sad."

However, she added that the district could do a better job of managing money.

David Pepper, a city councilman from Mount Adams, said he showed up Tuesday night at campaign headquarters in Bond Hill to support the levy and watch results come in.

"Everyone here has worked so hard, and I wanted to be here for the end. Or rather, the beginning of a lot of new school buildings."

He said that City Council endorsed the levy.

"I think this is the strongest partnership ever between City Council and public schools."

Maggie Downs contributed.

E-mail jmrozowski@enquirer.com