Rural school district voters handed out varying decisions Tuesday.

The Avenue City School District’s $1.25 million bond proposal passed 70.8 percent to 29.2 percent while the Buchanan County School District’s $1.3 million bond proposal failed 52.1 percent to 47.9 percent. Both proposals needed a 57 percent approval rate to pass.

The Avenue City district, which includes a kindergarten to eighth-grade school in Cosby, Mo., plans to add three classrooms, two locker rooms and a preschool. District officials say the improvements will meet increasing enrollment needs while updating facilities.

Funding for the projects will come through an extension of a 95-cent tax (95 cents per $100 of assessed valuation).

Tuesday afternoon, Superintendent Jerry Archer said he’d been hearing support for the proposal in the community.

The Buchanan County district was asking voters to approve bonds for a new sports complex, including the district’s first track, a new vocational-agricultural building and conversion of the existing vo-ag building into a band room.

The district’s tax rate of $4.90 per $100 of assessed valuation would have increased by 38 cents to $5.28 per $100 of assessed valuation — a 7 percent property tax increase.

Voters rejected the same proposal earlier this year.

Tuesday afternoon, Superintendent Lane Novinger said he was hopeful that voters would show more support this time, considering he thought the district did a better job of communicating details of the plan this time around.

Yet he knew the potential downside.

“We know the economy can make a difference in voters’ decisions. Times are tight,” Mr. Novinger said.

Also Tuesday:

Voters in Kansas’ Atchison County School District defeated a $19.89 million bond proposal by a 65.3 percent to 34.7 percent margin. The proposal, which needed a simple majority to pass, included a new pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade center in Effingham.

The Breckenridge School District’s Proposition C sales tax rollback waiver proposal was too close to call. It needed a simple majority (50 percent plus one) to pass, and Caldwell County and Daviess County results had the votes split 50 percent to 50 percent. However, results from Livingston County were unclear. The proposal would raise district property taxes by about 19 percent.

Nancy Hull can be reached

at nancyhull@npgco.com.