Lake Station voters appeared to pass a $1.38 million school property tax referendum Tuesday in a move that would send students back to in-school classes five days a week.

School supporters cheered loudly and high-fived as they watched unofficial precinct results posted on a wall at City Hall.

The measure lost by 14 votes last year and left the district in a financial crisis, forcing teacher and staff layoffs and the gutting of gifted and talented and STEM education programs.

Tuesday’s unofficial totals showed more than a 500-vote winning margin and a jubilant Superintendent Thomas Cripliver said busing would resume five days a week beginning Monday.

“It’s the kids who won this campaign,” said Cripliver. “The community came out and rallied around them. Our parents want all the opportunities of other surrounding districts.”

Gracelyn Music, 18, an Edison High senior, voted in her first election and backed the referendum. The daughter of school board member Kevin Music, said several of Edison’s voting-age seniors also supported the referendum.

School board president Greg Tenorio said the district deployed a much better ground game than last year’s election.

He said volunteers walked neighborhoods explaining the need for the referendum’s passage. “We had a lot of people saying they were supporting us. I think the busing played a big part with parents.”

Busing eats up about $484,000 of the annual referendum money, officials said. The funding loss from last year’s defeat prompted the district to restrict in-school busing to three days a week in August, with two days reserved for at-home remote learning.

The $1.38 million operating referendum, or about $11 million over the eight-year span, was originally approved by voters in 2017.

Officials said about $700,000 of the annual referendum money would be spent on teacher pay, recruitment and academic programs. The rest would primarily be spent on transportation costs.

State property tax caps have cost the district $7.4 million since 2019 and state laws and funding cuts have hindered Lake Station from sustaining itself, school officials said.

This year, a new state law backed by GOP lawmakers, calls for districts to share referendum revenue with charter schools that serve students in the district. That means Discovery Charter School in Porter and Neighbors New Vistas High School in Portage would each receive about $13,317 annually.

Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.