CLYDE - Clyde-Green Springs Exempted Village School District is asking voters to approve a 4.78-mill operating levy on the Aug. 7 ballot.
The emergency levy is for five years and first would be due in 2013, according to information from Seneca County Board of Elections.
Funds generated from the new levy would be used to pay for day-to-day operations of the district and would fund expenses such as salaries, benefits, utilities and bus fuel, Superintendent Gregg Elchert said.
Article Photos
Elchert
It would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $146.39 a year. A homeowner who is 65 years old and older would pay $109.79 annually, he said.
The levy would generate $1 million annually. Voters rejected a 4.9-mill levy that would have generated $1.08 million three times.
The district has cut 9 1/2 teaching positions, an administrative position and a custodial position and has reduced the hours or number of working days for other employees, Elchert said.
"We've come back with a slightly smaller levy request (because of the cuts)," he said.
Elchert said the district is entering the 2012-13 school year having cut about $3.6 million out of its budget over the last three years.
The district's high school industrial arts program no longer exists, French and American Sign Language no longer are offered at the high school, and the reduction of a business teacher has resulted in fewer business courses offered at the high school.
Elchert said the district no longer has sixth-grade choir and no longer offers a life skills course at the middle school, and K-5 students are receiving less art and physical education instruction.
Also, the district does not take field trips, and staff only can participate in professional development programs if covered by a grant. The athletic participation fee was raised and extended to include more activities, Elchert said.
"We've done everything we can to keep as much as we can," he said.
Clyde-Green Springs has lost $1.3 million per year due to cuts in state funding, not getting federal stimulus money, the loss of tangible personal property tax and the loss of reimbursement from the tangible personal property tax.
None of the current or previous state administrations have fixed school funding, Elchert said.
"The state of Ohio has not done its job," he said.
The board of education has agreed to restore high school busing, which had been eliminated in January, at the start of the school year if the levy passes. Elchert said the district has a permanent improvement levy renewal that probably will be on the ballot in November, so he doesn't know whether the board of education would put the operating levy back on the ballot in November if it were to fail in August.
"We haven't really discussed it at this point in time," he said.
The district would lose an entire year of collection and there would have to be more cuts if it were not on November's ballot, Elchert said.
"I do not know where they would come from," he said.
