Voters say no to budget override for Sunnyside school district

Sunnyside Unified School District’s losing streak continued in Tuesday’s election, as voters rejected a budget override that would have brought the district millions for academics and athletics.

Sunnyside district officials had planned to use the override money to increase student achievement and family and community engagement by focusing on two areas: academics and sports.

But voters disagreed, and the measure was trailing in Tuesday’s election by a margin of 36 to 64 percent after the vast majority of ballots were counted as of 7:20 p.m. There is still an unknown number of provisional and uncounted ballots that will not be calculated until at least Wednesday, though there are not enough uncounted ballots for the proposition to win.

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Two years ago, Sunnyside Unified School District asked voters to approve a budget override. But voters rejected the measure handily, just as they had rejected previous override attempts in 2013, 2012 and 2011.

After each failed override, the district had to cut millions from its budget, first laying off temporary workers, then teachers and librarians, and then, finally, shuttering the doors to several schools.