Monday, August 07, 2000
3 school levies up for vote Tuesday
By Jennifer Mrozowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Voters will decide the fate of operating levies in three Hamilton County school districts Tuesday. All three districts caution that levy failures will mean cuts to balance their budgets.
Norwood City Schools, St. Bernard-Elmwood Place City Schools and Three Rivers Local Schools all seek more money for school operations.
Three Rivers serves the communities of Addyston, Cleves and North Bend, as well as Miami Township.
Norwood
In Norwood, the district is seeking a 7.68-mill emergency operating levy to raise $2.4 million annually for five years.
It will pay for inflationary increases in operating costs, and pay raises and training for teachers and staff, a school official said.
The request covers the renewal of an expiring 5-year-old, 2.7-mill levy that raises $868,000 a year, plus 4.98 new mills to raise $1.6 million a year.
If the levy passes, a taxpayer with a home valued at $84,000 would pay an additional $128 a year.
The levy is needed to maintain programs and operations in the district, board President Susan Geselbracht said. The district has cut about $2 million from its budget over two years, she said.
“We made a promise in 1995 we would not go back to the voters for five years and we have maintained that promise,” Ms. Geselbracht said.
The levy would not replace jobs eliminated in January to cut expenses, including 12 teaching positions, 15 part-time teachers' aides, a high-school counselor, two administrative positions and two secretaries.
If the levy fails, the district will go back to the voters in November for approv al, Ms. Geselbracht said.
“One thing about our community is they are always there for a neighbor in need,” she said. ”I think they understand we are that neighbor in need.”
St. Bernard-Elmwood Place
The levy request for St. Bernard-Elmwood Place includes a 7.86-mill emergency operating levy to raise $1.67 million annually for four years.
It will cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $228 a year.
The district has not asked voters for additional operating levies since 1994.
The money would help offset revenues lost by the closing of a Procter & Gamble Co. facility in St. Bernard. That cost the district more than $300,000 last year and is projected to cut school funding by $1.3 million in the upcoming school year, Superintendent Jim Thomas has said.
While the company plans to rebuild the facility, that won't be for several years.
The levy is needed to maintain the existing level of education and programming. Without it, the district will have to eliminate its commitment to smaller classes with more teachers and aides in early grades, elementary grade art, nurses, music and physical education, said school board President Linda Radtke.
The levy also will go toward teacher and staff raises, and to pay for inflationary operational increases, Ms. Radtke said.
If the levy doesn't pass, the district will go back to the voters in November, she said.
“This is something we owe to our future generations so they can become the best they can be,” Ms. Radtke said. “But I'm confident our voters want our schools to be the best they can be.”
Three Rivers
Three Rivers asks for a 7.89-mill continuing operating levy to raise $2.8 million a year.
If passed, it will replace two expiring levies and add 2.9 new mills, which would provide $1 million a year in additional funding. The levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $84 a year in school taxes.
A 4.9-mill emergency operating levy that passed in 1995 expires in December. Voters are paying 4.2 effective mills on that because of new construction in the district, said board President Kathy Thinnes. A 1-mill technology levy passed in 1996 for startup technology, Ms. Thinnes said.
If the levy passes Tuesday, the district will cease collecting on the 1-mill technology levy as of Dec. 31, she said.
Voters turned down an 8.2-mill operating levy in March.
“The failure of this levy would mean catastrophe,” Ms. Thinnes said Sunday.
If it fails, she said, the board would have to cut transportation to the state minimum, meaning students less than two miles from school would not be eligible for busing, and high-school transpor tation would be eliminated for all public and private schools, Ms. Thinnes said.
“All athletics and extracurricular activities would cease as of the winter season,” she said.
School facilities also would have to shut down right after school and would not be available for community activities.
On an optimistic note, Ms. Thinnes said helpers who have campaigned for the levy have been a tremendous help. “I feel the community understands how important this is to the children,” she said.
Voting on all three levies takes place Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Call your school district for polling location information.
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