Union County voters overwhelmingly said no to a school consolidation issue in Tuesday's Illinois Primary election.Voters in the three feeder elementary districts to Anna–Jonesboro High School were voting on consolidating all four. But in Anna District 37, Jonesboro District 43 and Lick Creek District 16, voters rejected the plan by a combined margin of 80 to 20 percent.
John Bigler is a member of the Committee of Ten, which pushed hard for passage of the referendum. He says it was an uphill battle because of the emotions involved. Bigler says despite the voter rejection, he hopes positives come out of the studies done on administrative waste within the districts and the talk of aligning curriculums to better educate the students.
