Erin Fredrichs/Tribune

With election results projected on the wall behind her, Kaley Sjogren, 9 (left), laughs with her friend Kristina Galindo, 9, during the Bubblegum Brigade's victory party. "I wanted to do it because it sounded fun," Galindo said Tuesday night. "We go on trips and help people."

Erin Fredrichs/Tribune

Six-year-old Corey Haus toasts victory in the school bond election with his mother, Kristin Higginbotham (background) and fellow Bubblegum Brigade members including Hilary Pearson (right). The group helped turn out the vote Tuesday, which provided money for new West Side schools among other projects. "It's amazing because we have a lot of people helping," said Pearson, a recent Cibola High School graduate who was participating in her fifth brigade.

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The West Side will get its new schools. So how about a whole new school district?

With votes barely tallied for the first property tax increase for schools in 13 years, talk Tuesday was already turning to dividing the Albuquerque Public Schools between east and west.

Relieved that voters passed the $351 million bond issue, some West Side parents shied away from another debate over splitting.

"We just want our school fixed," said Susie Rayos Marmon PTA President Kristin Higginbotham.

"We're afraid to do anything until our school is built," said Ro Torres, also a PTA leader at the aging West Side elementary school.

Nevertheless, West Side Coalition of Neighborhoods leaders celebrating Tuesday's vote were anxious to revive the debate over forming a new school system west of the Rio Grande.

"There's been historical neglect for the West Side," said Joe L. Valles, coalition president. "We're going to explore our own district. We'd be irresponsible not to put this on the table as a possible solution."

Coalition leaders have called for a feasibility study before its 30 neighborhood association members vote on the issue, Valles said.

Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary, at 6401 Iliff Road N.W., will get about $7 million of the $351 million from the sale of general obligation bonds approved by voters Tuesday.

Parents Higginbotham and Torres were among the crowd at McKinley Middle School celebrating the vote that will build two new high schools, a middle and elementary school on the booming West Side. In all, the bond package will pay for 37 renovation and building projects districtwide.

It's schools like Susie Rayos Marmon that are evidence of West Side neglect, neighborhood leaders said. The school opened 17 years ago with portable buildings and has been waiting for permanent facilities ever since.

The West Side actually needs eight new schools, not just the four in this bond issue, they said.

"People are so upset," said Laura Horton, the Ventana Ranch Neighborhood Association president. "They hold their nose and cast their ballot. They think their own district would be more responsive. It's what people wanted for a long time."

Horton led the Bubblegum Brigade, a grassroots campaign with students hitting the streets to get out the vote Tuesday. She said the task gets harder each school election.

"It's very difficult to get the vote out, the positive vote," she said.

Tuesday's favorable vote for a 5.2 percent tax hike was not an overwhelming victory. Less than 6,000 votes carried the measure.

"People were calling all day long asking how much will my taxes go up," said Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera.

Poll workers at McKinley Middle School said voters expressed their concerns about a tax hike as well as their concerns about the way the district spends its money.

"They think they've squandered money; that's what I heard," said Norma Johnston, election judge. "I agree they haven't used it properly."

Voters were also disturbed that the district held an expensive election on one ballot question, said Emma Bustamante, election clerk.

It was a very poor turnout at McKinley with 227 of 2,700 voters casting ballots, she said.

District officials said the vote, while closer than expected, was not discouraging.

"We've really worked hard for this," said Superintendent Beth Everitt. "Considering it was our first tax increase in 13 years, I'm very pleased and excited."

West Side member of the Albuquerque Board of Education Robert Lucero had predicted a 70 percent approval.

"It's still a win and still not a bad win," he said. "The West Side just took a big step forward."

Lucero said he will remain focused on getting the new West Side schools built on time and not be diverted by the coalition's feasibility study on a separate district.

"We can debate the issue but my goal right now is to relieve overcrowding," he said.

The new northwest high school is scheduled to open for freshmen only in August 2007.

The new southwest high school is scheduled to open in August 2008 for freshmen.

The new high schools will relieve Cibola and West Mesa high schools.

West Mesa parent Candy Patterson, who serves on the southwest high school planning committee, said parents are more interested in getting their schools open than forming a new district.

"Parents aren't talking about a split," she said. "We cannot afford to do this at this point in time."