The fifth time was not the charm for the Willamina School District. Another defeat Tuesday left it batting 0 for 5 in attempts to pass a bond issue to fund new school construction.

However, the Dayton School District eked out a nail-biting win in its first try with a school bond measure. The final unofficial count was 560 to 525 or 52 percent to 48 percent.

The Dayton bond issue was trailing narrowly as midnight approached. But the last batch of ballots run by the county clerk's office put it over.

The Yamhill-Carlton offered voters a local option tax levy designed to stave off layoffs in the face of slumping state support, but they were having none of it. The levy lost 1,111 to 657, a ratio of more than 3 to 2.

Details are as follows:

Dayton School District

Dayton proposed an $11.2 million bond issue to fund new classroom and common space at all three levels.

Voters were asked to authorize a property tax increase estimated at $2.10 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. At that rate, the bond cost the owner of a house assessed at $150,000 for tax purposes - realistic, because houses are assessed at only about 60 percent of true market value in Yamhill County - about $315 per year.

Superintendent Janelle Beers said the school board was well aware that times are tough, but said, "We are totally out of space now, and some of what we have is not really conducive to learning."

That, she said, convinced the board it had to act. And it was rewarded by voters at the polls.

Willamina School District

With rejection of a $3 million, 21-year bond Tuesday, voters now have said no to five Willamina School District bond measures in less than four years.

The final unofficial count from Polk and Yamhill counties showed it going down 588 to 504. The margin was virtually identical on both sides of the county line.

Voters set the stage for Tuesday's balloting by rejecting measures of $12 million in November 2005, $13.5 million in May 2006, $9.2 million in November 2006 and $8.5 million in November 2008.

The most recent defeat was extremely narrow, giving the district hope. And it proposed spending only about one third as much this time.

However, it didn't prove enough to give the district a victory.

Passage would have cost taxpayers a projected 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. That would have cost the owner of a house assessed at $150,000 for tax purposes - and worth nearly double that on the market - about $90 a year.

The money would have financed construction of:

n Seven classrooms at the elementary school on Oaken Hills Drive, allowing the district to move sixth graders into town, freeing up space at the middle school in Grand Ronde, and mothball some aging modulars.

n Two alternative school classrooms and an ag, welding and woodworking shop at the high school on Oaken Hills Drive. That would have enabled the district to move those programs out of deteriorating and inadequate quarters in the old high school building on Washington Street.

n A new track surface and multi-purpose room at the Oaken Hills complex.

Yamhill-Carlton School District

Voters decisively rejected a Yamhill-Carlton School District local option levy.

The district is projecting shortfalls of $547,000 this year and $1.4 million next year in its operating budget. The latter would force it to lay off seven teachers and four support personnel, eliminate the middle school extracurricular program and reduce the high school's extracurricular program by half.

The levy was designed to avert much of that. Passage would have cost taxpayers a projected $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, or $225 a year on a house assessed for tax purposes at $150,000.

The levy would have yielded $750,000 in each of its three years. The money would have been used to support both curricular and extracurricular activities.