It is almost impossible to parody the local Knight Ridder outlet’s take on the school bond result, but it is damn funny nonetheless.

“The school bonds faced an unusually negative campaign,” the Observer thunders. What campaign?

The Yes on Bonds effort dwarfed any organized No effort. In fact, the news — the message — is that voters across the county voted against the current CMS plan in the face of a massive pro-bond propaganda campaign.

This was no narrow matter of spending more here or building more there; even the areas the school board and county commission targeted for new schools in South Charlotte voted against the bonds. In truth, local elected officials’ gambit that South Char-Meck voters would accept the political bargain of swallowing a huge bond issue — virtually mandating a property tax hike to pay for it — in order to get their local schools built failed big time.

And it failed because CMS has lost the trust of the public. You do not get a result of 57 to 43 otherwise. You do not get the vast majority of 243 precincts all voting No without a huge lack of trust.

More than one voter told me that they simply did not believe that voting for $427 million in bonds would do anything for them except raise their taxes; that the promised schools would never, ever be built for their kids.

Where does that come from? Some “unusually negative campaign” for a few weeks? Absurd. It comes from year after year of inane and downright deceitful CMS performance.

That there is still stubborn denial from the powers that be in Charlotte is shameful and should never be forgotten by people who truly care about their community.