BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
FAIRFIELD -- Voters won't be asked until November to approve an operating levy to keep the Fairfield City School District in the black.
Facing a $1.2 million deficit by June 1999, school officials decided last week not to ask voters for more money until November.
Had they gone on the August ballot, Treasurer James Rowan said, the district would need a 4.9-mill levy to raise $4.4 million annually. That would have kept the district solvent through June 2001, based on estimates of state aid and pay increases for teachers, Mr. Rowan said.
Those numbers could change by the August filing deadline for the November election, depending on the outcome of negotiations just beginning with teachers or changes in the school funding formula, Mr. Rowan said.
"Please understand there are still several unknowns," Mr. Rowan told school board members.
"This is what we know as of today. Between now and August we'll know more for the November election than we know now."
Board members said they were concerned about the estimated $30,000 cost for a special election when past history has shown few issues have received voter support in August.
Superintendent Charles Wiedenmann said it also would be difficult to put together a campaign during summer months when people would be on vacation.
"I feel strongly we'll throw $30,000 down the drain if we go in August," said board member Ben Hubbard, who sits on the board's finance committee.
"We just asked for a permanent improvement levy, and now we're going to ask them again?
"We will not have a chance."
Voters Tuesday renewed a 2-mill, five-year, permanent improvement levy that raises about $760,000 annually for building maintenance.
