In 2010, Raymondville ISD middle schoolers will have a brand new state of the art facility to continue their education, after voters overwhelmingly approved a $9.8 million bond measure last night to replace the aging Myra Green Middle School.

Voters cast 388 votes for the bond measure, and 193 against the measure, after a very light turnout.

New appointed RISD Superintendent Johnny Pineda was happy with the news, after a long day of waiting patiently.

"We're very pleased with the results of the election," Pineda said. "Our kids our very deserving of a new middle school."

Pineda said that the $9.8 million in bonds will be solely earmarked for the new middle school.

"We'll continue to work with the community to provide periodic updates on the project," he added. "The district already has an architect working on the design."

Ground breaking for the new facility could be in the late spring or early summer of 2008, according to Pineda.

"Middle schools usually take about two years to complete," he added.

Students entering classes in the fall of 2010 will be the first graduating class of the new school in 2013, according to calculations by the Chronicle/ News.

In the only other local election, Willacy County voters reelected Terry White to the Navigation District Board. Write-in candidate Raul Flores lost to White on a slim margin of 312 votes to 368.

Jaime Serna, elections administrator for Willacy County said they had to hand verify writein votes in their tabulation, which was finished about 9:30 p.m. last night.

Roy Ruiz, Kenedy County's election administrator, had a much easier time since his county had no special measures to handle.

Statewide, two propostions for limiting increases in municipal property and vehicle taxes passed by wide margins, along with Propostion 7 allowing government entities to sell private property acquired through eminent domain.

Kenedy and Willacy County results for each of the 16 statewide propositions are shown on a table on Page 4. E-mail comments on this story to; robert@raymondvillechroniclenews.com