By Jolie Peal 
, Reporter Nebraska Public Media News
May 13, 2026, 3 p.m. ·
Across the state, voters rejected four out of six school bond elections Tuesday, including a $64 million proposal for Waverly and a nearly $35 million attempt for Norris.
The Waverly school district had the largest bond for voters to decide this election at $64 million. It failed with 1,749 votes against and 1,113 votes in support, according to unofficial election results. The district reaches voters in Lancaster, Saunders and Cass counties.
The bond would have funded safety and security upgrades in each school building, new early childhood classrooms, expansions for middle and high school classrooms, additional space for students with disabilities and a new HVAC system for the high school.
Superintendent Cory Worrell said it was disappointing to see voters reject the bond, especially after the district made adjustments following a failed $90 million bond attempt two years ago.
“The big pieces to this bond issue are ones that aren't really going to change moving forward for us — safety, trying to also improve career and technical education opportunities, early childhood, expansion of our programs, and then also improving the HVAC systems and mainly our high school building,” Worrell said. “They're not going away. They don't fix themselves.”
Worrell said he was also disappointed in the lack of engagement from voters when it came to understanding what the bond issue was.
“A lot of people were not engaged again with what this bond issue was about,” Worrell said. “What were the particulars? What were the specifics in regards to the financial part of it?”
He added that the district will need to figure out how to engage more voters in the process. Worrell said there is no “plan B” yet, but the school will need to address certain issues, like the HVAC systems, soon.
“It's no different than a house that a person builds,” Worrell said. “There are parts of your house that wear out. From time to time, your furnace might run out, or your air conditioning unit might run out or a hot water heater, you have to replace them. It's no different than in a school.”
While Worrell hadn’t heard much from voters yet on why they rejected the bond, he said there may be some people worried about the cost in a time when gas prices, food costs and taxes are increasing.
Norris’ nearly $35 million bond request also failed, with unofficial results in Lancaster and Gage counties showing 2,384 against and 1,409 in support. The district was hoping to upgrade security with redesigned main entrances, improve traffic safety around the school, replace roofs and HVAC systems, update classrooms and renovate to meet building and ADA codes.
Superintendent Derrick Joel said the district spent a year and a half working on the bond through discussions, community forums and community steering groups.
Joel said the district will need to figure out how to reprioritize the money that’s available to address the critical needs laid out in the bond.
“We've hit a point where the work has to be done,” Joel said. “There's no more waiting, especially on our roofs, HVAC, our lack of parking, our lack of pedestrian safety, our ADA compliance, especially in our high school. The work needs to be done.”
In the past few years, Joel said Norris has tried to lower its tax levies, especially as property valuations have gone up. Additionally, the school hasn’t put as much into its special building fund with the idea that it would help taxpayers save more.
“That's what led to that decision to not save as much to take care of the work, but to pass that savings on to taxpayers, with the hopes that we could get a bond issue approved to take care of that work all at once,” Joel said.
Although the election didn’t go in the school’s favor, Joel said he appreciated the feedback and conversations with the community throughout the process.
“If anything, it allowed us to share additional information regarding safety, security, infrastructure, all of that with the community, to create an awareness of the state of the district,” Joel said. “Now we can plan forward based on what the outcome of May 12 was.”
Plainview Public School offered voters two bond proposals on Tuesday, both of which failed. The district boundaries go into Pierce, Antelope and Knox counties.
The larger of the two proposals was for $26 million, which focused on the district’s academic spaces. It included improvements for safety and security, updating career and technical education spaces and equipment, and updating spaces for students with disabilities.
It overwhelmingly failed with 636 voters against and 239 in support.
The second proposal could only pass if the first one had. It was for nearly $6 million to add a new gymnasium. There were 650 voters against it and 220 in support.
Centura Public Schools in central Nebraska also saw its $18.95 million bond attempt fail, with 613 voting against it and 463 voting for it, according to unofficial results in Hall, Howard, Sherman and Buffalo counties. The district hoped to improve safety and security, modernize building systems and update classrooms. According to the bond website, the school hasn’t had major improvements since 1981.
Two school districts seemingly succeeded in passing their bonds: Pierce Public Schools and Stanton Community Schools.
The Pierce Public Schools bond amounts to nearly $10 million to expand and renovate the elementary school. According to the bond website, staff shared safety concerns about pickup and drop-off lanes, door and window security, insufficient security cameras, an inadequate intercom system and the need for an electronic lock system.
The bond includes renovating special education classrooms, enhancing security and building additional classrooms and spaces for students. It passed with 668 votes in support in Pierce County and 625 against, and in Wayne county eight for and 28 against — a 23-vote total difference, according to unofficial results from both counties.
Voters rejected a previous bond proposal for $29.5 million in August.
Stanton Community Schools passed a nearly $25 million bond for the construction of a new elementary school, which will include a multipurpose gym, an early childhood center and access to a storm shelter inside the building. Currently, students have to go outside to reach the storm shelter.
There were 607 votes for the bond in Stanton County and 522 against.
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