Wednesday, February 03, 1999
School bond issue defeated
Middletown to rethink
BY SUE KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP — Voters overwhelmingly defeated a $94.7 million bond issue Tuesday, putting education reform in the Middletown/Monroe Schools on hold.
Voters in Butler and Warren counties rejected the 5.95-mill issue 5,920 to 2,539, according to final, unofficial results. It was the first bond issue on the ballot in 35 years.
“We're disappointed, no doubt. This was a plan put together with a lot of research,” said district Superintendent Wayne Driscoll. “It's back to business. Certainly the infrastructure and building needs are there.”
About 25 percent of the registered voters in Butler County turned out at the polls. The board of education will discuss the results at their board meeting Monday.
“We have to go back and look at the results in the next few days,” said Treasurer Edmund Pokora. “We have to see how we can do better.”
The bond issue would have cost the owner of a house with a market value of $100,000 an additional $187 annually in taxes. Had it passed, proceeds from the issue would have been used to fund a plan that reduced class size for elementary school students, created five middle schools for grades 5-8, built two elementary schools and added classrooms to four other buildings. It was a plan put together over a three-year period by the Business Education Collaboration, with ideas from about 1,000 people.
Under the proposal, Jefferson, Mayfield, Oneida and Central Academy elementary schools would have closed, but two elementary schools would have been built on property at Amanda and Jefferson elementary schools.
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