WHAT'S NEXT? School funding plans

Lisbon voters approved a 23-year,1/2-mill levy. The state will provide $11.5 million and the district will borrow $2 million more for gymnasium and classroom additions. Improvements include an addition of 8,535 square feet at McKinley Elementary and 31,717 at the junior-senior high, including a new gymnasium. The state and local money will also cover the cost of plumbing and heating systems, technology, security and sprinkler systems, classroom furniture, parking lot improvements at both buildings and playground improvements at McKinley.
Beaver school district voters defeated a new five-year, 1.5 mill permanent improvement levy that would generate $287,375 annually. School officials said the money is needed for general maintenance of facilities, technology upgrades, school bus purchases and building security upgrades. The district also has an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency mandate to build a new sewage treatment plant at the high school.
Columbiana voters defeated the school district's 1.6 mill, permanent improvement replacement levy May 7, as they had in February. The issue will appear again, this time on the Aug. 6 special election ballot.
School officials will use the $210,000 the levy will generate annually to improve facilities, purchase buses and textbooks. Already planned are about $120,000 for roof repair and replacement on portions of the Joshua Dixon Elementary, and $76,000 for roof replacement and repair at South Side Middle School.
East Liverpool voters approved the school district's request to borrow $7.9 million from the sale of bonds. The district will receive $52 million from the Ohio School Facilities Commission.
Plans are to renovate Westgate Elementary -- which now houses pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade -- to a facility for sixth- through eighth-graders. The high school and three elementary schools will see additions and complete renovations. East, North and LaCroft elementary schools will then have kindergarten through fifth-grade pupils at each building.