The five-year, 4.9-mill emergency operating levy for Carlisle Local Schools is still failing following a certification of provisional ballots Monday by the Warren County Board of Elections.

The levy, the closest major election on the ballot, gained a small bit of ground since the unofficial results were released Nov. 6. Those results were 48.89 percent for the levy and 51.11 percent against the levy. Monday’s certification brought the count to 1,957 votes or 49.06 percent for the levy and 2,032 votes or 50.94 percent against the levy.

The levy’s results won’t be officially finalized until Montgomery County certifies it election results on Tuesday. Two precincts in Montgomery County vote on the levy.

“You’re talking about a one percent difference between the voters. Not counting where Montgomery County is — I’m assuming it’s similar — we might gain some there, too — it looks like we have a bit more to still overcome,” Carlisle superintendent Larry Hook said.

“I think the biggest thing we can look at here is that we’re getting more ‘yes’ votes than we have ever had in the past,” he said. “Some of the precincts, where we have heavy student populations, we won those precincts. So that’s encouraging. They see what’s going on in the school every day, compared to those voters who don’t have a student in the system where you might not notice the need or experience the class sizes.”

Carlisle Schools has earned an “Excellent” rating on the state report card for the past two years, a first for the district.

By declaring the issue as an emergency tax levy, the district had hoped to begin collecting on the tax as soon as January 2013. Now, Hook said, the board will have to find other cuts to make in the district’s $14 million budget.

“It’s discouraging that we have to make more cuts that we can’t afford to do without impacting the students,” Hook said. “I feel pretty good that we’ll likely go back on the ballot in May, and hopefully we can avoid the cuts that will impact our kids, but the bottom line is the board hasn’t made that decision. Because it didn’t pass in November, the earliest we can pass something would be May, which means we can’t collect money we need for one more year. And it can’t be the same amount we’d originally asked for if we want to give the same amount of services. We’re losing about $800,000 with this.”

Hook guessed that the next levy issue would require an initiative with a 5-mill or higher price tag.

The county board Monday certified 2,593 provisional ballots out of a possible 3,107, said board member Bethe Goldenfield.

The only election that changed as a result of counting the provisional ballots was a request for Sunday liquor sales from the Franklin Walmart. The measure originally looked to fail by five votes but now has passed by one vote on a count of 270 votes for and 269 against. Because of the razor thin margin, a recount of that election will take place Dec. 5.

In the final presidential race tally, President Barack Obama received 29.6 percent of the vote and Governor Mitt Romney received 68.85 percent in Warren County.

In total, 111,757 or 76.35 percent of eligible voters in Warren County cast a ballot in the election, Goldenfield said.