PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles School District property tax levy proposal was overwhelmingly approved in the first count of ballots Tuesday, with 58.98 percent of voters favoring it.

Port Angeles Citizens for Education Co-chair Betsy Wharton turned a cartwheel in the lobby of the Clallam County Courthouse after the room cleared and most had left to tell other groups of people of the levy’s passage.

“Hallelujah,” said the former deputy mayor, who led the campaign committee pressing for the measure’s passage along with insurance agent Steve Methner.

“I am so relieved,” Wharton said

A total of 9,874 votes, or 52.37 percent, were counted Tuesday out of the 18,854 total ballots mailed to registered voters.

Voters passed the levy with 5,115 votes, or 58.98 percent, cast in favor and 3,558 votes, or 41.02 percent, against.

Although all the ballots received through Tuesday had been processed and counted, Clallam County Auditor Patty Rosand expected to receive another 800 over the next several days.

“I don’t expect it to change by more than 1 percent in either direction,” she said.

The next count of ballots will be by 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Superintendent Jane Pryne, along with Wharton and School Board Vice President Sarah Methner, campaign co-chair Methner’s wife, gathered at the courthouse on Tuesday to await results.

Following the announcement of ballot tallies shortly after 8 p.m., joyous shouts erupted, followed by texting sent to others who were not able to be at the courthouse.

“I’m very, very excited and relieved,” Pryne said.

“We are very grateful for the support of the community for the schools and we will continue to provide high-quality education for the children of Port Angeles,” she said.

School Board President Cindy Kelly is in Washington, D.C., representing the Washington State School Directors’ Association.

Contacted by cell phone, she said: “It is a time to celebrate for Port Angeles kids.

“The community has always been so supportive of the schools, and we are very thankful.”

Shelley Taylor, who has spoken out against the levy, was not at the courthouse but said later that she was not surprised the levy passed.

“I knew this was going to pass; I was just hoping to break open the discussion that the whole system needs reformed,” she said.

“It needs to favor teachers above everything else because the single most important thing for a kid to get a good education is the relationship between that student and that teacher. That has been proven over and over again.”

The four-year levy request will collect about $8.2 million the first year in 2012, with an estimated tax rate of $2.65 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

That means that the owner of a $200,000 home in Port Angeles will pay about $530 a year in property taxes to the school district.

The district’s current property tax levy rate is $2.43 per $1,000 of assessed valuation — which means the owner of a $200,000 home will pay $486 to the district this year.

The amounts the levy will collect are $8,178,067 in 2012, $8,300,738 in 2013, $8,425,249 in 2014 and $8,551,628 in 2015.

Although the amount of revenue collected by the district would increase each year, the rate changes according to property assessments, which are expected to rise by a small percentage annually, so the amount property owners would pay is expected to remain constant.

The levy will replace a four-year levy that will collect $7,439,312 this year, its final year.

The board voted in August to place the levy on the February ballot, just after hearing of state budget cuts to education.

More than $1 million was cut from the district’s budget mid-year.

Pryne said 55 percent of the current levy goes to what she called “basic education.”

The district has broken down the rest of the levy revenue as 17 percent for maintenance and operations of buildings, 11 percent for special education, 7 percent for student transportation and 10 percent for other programs such as career and technical education, athletics and music.

Election results will be certified and final Feb. 23.

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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.