&#8220I'm disappointed for our children that the community could not look to put them into a 21st century building.”

Those were the words of Citizens Committee for Ironton City Schools chairman Dale Clark as he reviewed the results of Tuesday's school bond levy election.

Ironton city voters turned thumbs down on the idea of

paying for new schools, - but by a narrow margin. The final tally was 2,293 votes against the levy, 2,108 votes in favor of it.

This did not turn out to be the night Clark and others of like mind had hoped for.

&#8220Sure, I'm disappointed,” Clark said. &#8220I don't look forward to going in the morning and telling the children we failed.”

Clark attributed the loss to an aggressive campaign against the levy and the plethora of money questions on the ballot.

He said it would be up to the school board what the next move would be.

Like Clark, Mark McCown, one of the leaders of a grassroots organization that aimed to save Ironton High School from the wrecking ball, said he thought a number of factors, both financial and sentimental, played into the levy's defeat.

McCown said he wants Tuesday's defeat to turn into a positive.

&#8220I hope we can sit down with representatives of the school board and see if we can't come together as a community and get broad-based support for a levy,” McCown said.

Tuesday's election is not necessarily the end of the issue: The school district has three more opportunities to pass a school bond levy before it loses $30 million in state monies to pay for the bulk of such a project.