With all 151 precincts reporting in at press time, Federal Way Public Schools has announced that it has secured the required number of votes to declare a victory for its school bond measure.

Voters took to the polls last week on May 15, with more than 14,500 ballots cast in favor of the district's proposition.

9,149 voters supported the proposition, giving the measure 62.81 percent of vote.

The proposition required a supermajority of 60 percent to pass.

5,418 voters (37.19 percent) rejected the proposition.

The bond measure advertised a zero tax increase, and allocated funds to rebuild six major school facilities, including Valhalla Elementary School (Built in 1967), Panther Lake Elementary (Built in 1960), Lakeland Elementary (Built in 1952), Sunnycrest Elementary (Built in 1965), Lakota Middle School (Built in 1962), and the Transportation, Nutrition Services, and Maintenance departments (Built in 1964 and 1969), all of which are currently among the oldest facilities in the district.

The voter-approved bond will allocate $149 million to the reconstruction of these facilities.

The district will also capitalize on more than $20 million in Washington state matching funds to refurbish and repair an additional 20 facilities in Federal Way.

The list of facilities includes all buildings constructed before 1990 with the exception of Federal Way High School and the district's central offices.

According the FWPS web site, these repairs will include new roofs, new plumbing and heating, as well as new wiring as needed.

The new construction and repairs will take place until 2012.

The passing of this bond measure comes after two unsuccessful attempts by the district to gain approval of its construction projects.

In 2005, Federal Way Schools put a $245 million bond on the ballot.

Although it received a nearly 54 percent "yes" vote, school funding measures must pass by 60 percent of the vote in Washington State.

Following the election, the school district had an independent survey conducted about the district's performance and building issues.

The majority of the respondents gave the district high marks, but said that the 2005 bond measure asked for too much at once.

The district went back to the drawing board and put together a reduced bond measure for the schools most critically in need of rebuilding.

That measure was on the ballot in November 2006, and failed to achieve the 60 percent supermajority by fewer than 100 votes.

The current measure is identical the one presented in November, and so far appears to have exceeded the required number of votes for the supermajority.

The district wants to remind voters that the bond measure will not increase the current tax rate.

Currently Federal Way ranks behind Tacoma, Auburn, Kent in Fife in tax rate, with an average tax rate of $4.19 per $1,000 of assessed home value.

The average home value in Federal Way is $262,848, meaning that Federal Way home owners pay an average of $1,001.