TYLER — A proposal to expand the new RTR School building resulted in close election results Tuesday. Unofficial vote totals showed a building bond referendum failed by just 16 votes. District-wide, the referendum received 492 “yes” votes to 508 “no” votes.

RTR Superintendent David Marlette said Tuesday night that while the outcome of the referendum was “disappointing,” the closeness of the results wasn’t a surprise.

“We felt it was going to be close,” Marlette said. “But we thought that we were going to be OK.”

The $15 million building bond referendum proposed to add a total of 16 new classrooms, a new gymnasium and a new fitness and weight room area to RTR School in Tyler. The building addition would have provided more space for STEM and careers-related classes, special education services, and possibly a daycare, Marlette told the Independent last week.

The current preK-12 school building was designed with a maximum capacity of 700 students. Just two years after the school was built, district enrollment was already close to the maximum, Marlette said.

The referendum had different levels of support in the district’s three voting precincts on Tuesday. According to the vote totals, the referendum passed among Tyler voters, with 215 “yes” votes and 88 “no” votes. However, “no” votes had the lead in both the Russell and Ruthton precincts.

In Russell, the ballot question failed with 134 “yes” votes to 194 “no” votes. In Ruthton, the question failed with 143 “yes” votes and 226 “no” votes.

District-wide, it meant that 50.8% of voters cast ballots against the building bond referendum.

Marlette said the next steps for the RTR School Board will be to certify the election. That will take place on Monday.