MOUNT HEALTHY — Several financial setbacks in the past year have prompted officials in the Mount Healthy Schools to ask voters to next Tuesday approve an 8.99-mill continuing levy.

        It is the only Southwest Ohio school issue in the August special election.

        The levy, if approved, would bring $2.6 million annually to school coffers with collections beginning in January, said Rebecca Brooks, schools treasurer. It would be enough to avoid a projected $1 million deficit by June 2004. The cost to the owner of an $80,000 home would be about $221 annually.

        “When we last approved a levy in 1998, we thought it would last three years,” Ms. Brooks said. “So far, it's lasted four years and we thought we were going to get another year out of it.”

        But the district was stuck by several setbacks in the past year. Among them:

        School officials budgeted a $90,000 reduction in revenues for the 2001-02 school year based on the number of students who enrolled in charter schools the previous year. More students than anticipated enrolled in charter schools, which increased the reduction in state aid to $480,000.

        A change in how Hillman Fastener computes its inventory tax caused a permanent reduction of $178,000 annually.

        Fleet, liability and property insurance tripled, costing the district $75,000 more than what was budgeted. Health insurance also rose but that increase was anticipated and built into the budget.

        “No school board likes to go back and ask the citizens for a tax increase,” said Al Crawford, president of the Mount Healthy Board of Education. “But the way the school (funding) system is designed, legislators leave us with no other options. We always look at this as a last resort.”

        To get through the upcoming school year in the black, the board has taken steps to reduce spending, Ms. Brooks said. Among them:

        Textbook purchases and facility improvements have been put on hold.

        The duties of a retiring administrator will be divided among others and the position will not be filled.

        Instead of replacing the roof at North Middle School at a cost of $250,000, only the worst sections will be patched at a cost of $60,000.

        Individual building budgets have been reduced by 20 percent and the district is reducing the amount of teaching supplies and materials. The measures should result in a $625,000 savings, Ms. Brooks said.

        In the past year the district has made dramatic improvements. The district jumped from academic emergency on the 2001 Ohio Report Card to continuous improvement on the 2002 report card, a two-category improvement, based largely on improvements in state proficiency test scores.

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