Thursday, July 15, 1999
Schools face deadline for levies
Board must file petition by Aug. 19
BY MIRIAM SMITH
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — School officials already are bracing for an estimated 5,000 new students in the next six years. On Aug. 4, the Board of Education plans to take anoth er step in preparing for the influx.
The board will present a facilities plan and is expected to vote to decide whether to place a bond issue and/or operating levy on the November ballot. The deadline to file with the Warren County Board of Elections is Aug. 19.
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ENROLLMENT SWELLS
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Mason City Schools officials predict the district's enrollment could nearly double by the 2004-2005 academic year — from its current 5,354 to 10,317 students.
The high school is projected to be 548 students beyond its capacity in four years. About 25 percent of the land in the district has yet to be developed.
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Board Vice President Marianne Culbertson said the board has a “pretty strong feeling” about placing both issues on the fall ballot because they don't want to raise money to build schools and not have money to staff them.
That's what happened in Springboro after residents ap proved a bond issue in 1995 for facilities, but voted down three operating levies that would have enabled the district to hire more staff. A newly renovated elementary school won't open this fall because the district doesn't have the money to hire staff.
“We don't want to put the future building of the community, or the future building of the schools at risk with separating the (tax) issues,” Mrs. Culbertson said.
One possibility the board is considering is delaying collections on an operating levy for a year.
A steering committee last month recommended to the board that a larger high school be built to accommodate up to 3,200 students.
As part of the first phase of construction, the committee recommended the new high school accommodate 2,400 students.
The current high school would be used for 1,500-1,600 seventh- and eighth-graders.
Recommendations also call for housing prekindergarten students in the Mason Early Education Center. Mason Heights Elementary and Western Row elementary schools would hold kindergarten through third grade.
The Early Childhood Center currently has prekindergarten, kindergarten and latchkey students; Mason Heights has grades 1-2 and Western Row has grades 3-4. Mason Intermediate, which has grades 5-6, and Ma son Middle School, which has grades 7-8, would both have grades 4-6.
The second phase of the building plan would require a school for kindergarten through third grade and expansion of the new high school by 800 students.
The estimated cost of both phases is between $78 million and $81 million. No final determinations have been made on how much the issue would cost taxpayers.
Mason was the fastest-growing school district in Greater Cincinnati this year in terms of new students. Last fall, it gained 580.
In the past 10 years, enrollment has increased about 110 percent while the district has built a middle school, elementary school and additions to the high school and two elementary schools. In four years, all of the district's facilities will be at or beyond capacity, officials said.
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