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Consultant'led poll shows narrow support for mill levy; board told bond unlikely to pass
Summary
A WR Communications poll of Clear Creek voters found modest majority support for a proposed mill levy (53.6% favorable, 51.6% when weighted) but weak support for a bond; consultant Bill Ray urged focused outreach on teacher pay and CTE and cautioned that conventional success thresholds are near 56%.
Bill Ray of WR Communications presented results of a May 6'June 2 community survey to the Clear Creek School District No. Re-1 board, saying the sample yielded 248 responses and showed "53.6% favorable" to the sample mill-levy ballot language and narrower support (about 51.6%) after demographic weighting. Ray said the ballot question was not a "slam dunk," and advised the district that "conventional wisdom is that you want this number to be 56% or higher to feel that your ballot question will be successful."
Ray's presentation broke out responses by age and zip code and flagged two themes the district should emphasize: competitive teacher compensation and career-and-technical-education (CTE) support. He told the board that those two messages most consistently moved support in the survey, and that younger voters and the district's most populous ZIP code (80439) were important to winning favorable outcomes.
On the bond question, Ray said a separate ballot item posed as a bond produced far less support and would be a tougher ask in the current environment. He recommended keeping any mill-levy proposal focused, citing the survey's open-ended comments that frequently asked for more fiscal transparency and more detail about how money would be spent. "You don't want to be upside down on the definitely-yes vs. definitely-no number," he said, noting that education and outreach would be required before a referral.
