Four local school districts are counting on their communities to say, “Yes” to renewal levies that all emphasize will not mean new taxes.
Renewal levies will be on the ballot for residents in Ontario, Mansfield City, Madison and Plymouth-Shiloh.
“It’s not new money. It won’t increase your taxes,” said Randy Harvey, treasurer for the board of education at the Ontario Local School District. “It allows us to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
Harvey explained that Ontario already ranks low on the 2016 statewide District Profile Report’s lists of district total revenue per pupil, which takes all the district’s funds divided by the number of students within the district.
In a list of more than 600 Ohio school districts, Ontario was 12th from the bottom with about $9,700 in total revenue per pupil, which ranks just above the lowest, $8,994 in total revenue per pupil at Avon Local School District in Lorain, Ohio.
“It’s crucial for Ontario Schools,” he said. “If it were not to pass … it might make us the poorest or at least one of the poorest school districts in the state.”
The school district is asking voters to say “yes” to a 4.8 mills emergency renewal levy that was first passed in 1992 to avoid an operating deficit.
It will provide the district with about $1.3 million annually, which Harvey says is essential to the district’s budget. It makes up just under 8 percent of the budget and will be used for general operating expenses.
This vote follows the failure of a 4.8 substitute levy that was offered to voters last November. That measure went down by 65 votes. If it would have passed, it would have been a continuous levy, which Ontario’s superintendent, Lisa Carmichael said could have saved money for campaign costs.
“It’s always very expensive whenever we do campaigning. For example, just the past six or seven weeks, I’ve used about $4,000 out of our campaign fund on levy promotional materials, brochures, postcards and mailings to our parents,” Carmichael said last fall.
But for the past 25 years, the emergency renewal levy has successfully passed every five years. Harvey is optimistic the same thing will happen in May.
The Mansfield City School District has two renewal levies on the ballot, one at 10.4 mills and the other at 10.7 mills. They bring in about $4 million each annually.
The first renewal levy was approved in 1993 for emergency requirements. It’s been approved consistently ever since.
The other was approved in 2013 after it failed to pass in 2012. Like the one approved in the 1990’s, this one too was for emergency requirements.
The district entered a state of fiscal emergency Dec. 17, 2013. With the help of a Financial Planning and Supervision Commission, the district got “back in shape,” treasurer Robert Kuehnle said. But the emergency resulted in nearly 150 employees losing their jobs and an elementary school closing.
The district’s fiscal emergency designation was removed in December 2016.
“You have to learn from it,” Kuehnle said.
Within the past week, the school district announced received a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting. Also, an audit in December came back clean.
“We are doing the correct things with our funds. We are on the right path,” Kuehnle said. “We’ve learned our lessons.”
If passed, the levies will be used for “day-to-day expenses.”
The Madison Local School District is hoping voters will renew a 6.9 mills levy.
Initially approved in 1992, the levy will collect about $1.4 million annually, which covers current expenses. It has been approved every five years.
“If this levy passes, I project being in the black until 2020, without unforeseen things happening,” said superintendent Lee Kaple. “We don’t anticipate any new money for the next five years.”
He says the school district has maintained operating costs through “sound fiscal management,” specifically by making reductions in administrative and teaching positions.
“We are always looking for ways to streamline,” he said.
The last renewal passed 60 to 40 percent. Like in the other Richland County districts, Kaple stressed this is not an additional tax.
The Plymouth-Shiloh Local School District wants voters to approve a 3.7 mills renewal levy.
Originally passed in 1992 at 9.4 mils to avoid an operating deficit, the levy is now set at a fixed rate.
Superintendent James Metcalf said this is the “last operating money we’ve passed,” which means the district has been operating on the same amount for the past 25 years.
“We try our best to be as fiscally responsible as we can be,” Metcalfe said. “We’d like to think we’ve been good stewards with the taxpayers’ dollars.”
Though it’s passed every five years, he said it’s gotten increasingly difficult.
“It gets tougher and tougher. No one wants to pay taxes and give their money away,” he said. “But we have been fortunate, the community has been supportive.”
The money is used for operating expenses, Metcalfe noted.
