SCHOOLS Bristol district to make another attempt at levy
Voters will be asked to decide on two school levies next year.
BRISTOLVILLE -- The Bristol School District will make a sixth attempt in February to win voter approval for an additional 5.5-mill, five-year levy.
Schools Superintendent Marty Santillo said the state board overseeing district finances approved the measure for the February ballot. Its approval would generate an additional $400,000 annually for the district for those five years.
The district last passed a levy in August 1991; it continues to generate $220,000 annually. That levy will be up for renewal next May -- and its failure would also spell "real deep trouble" for the district, Santillo said.
"The problem we have here is that in 1988 we became a merged district" with Farmington, he explained. "The district that ended up with the school has to carry the levy" with its yes votes.
Just one building
There is only one school building in the district after the closing of Farmington Elementary at the end of last school year. The levy had passed in the three Bristol precincts but lost in the two Farmington Township precincts, Santillo noted.
The state declared a fiscal emerg2
ency status for the district more than a year ago, citing a projected deficit; the state commission overseeing the district's finances borrowed $785,000 from a state solvency assistance fund last year and is in the process of repaying it.
The state auditor's office has forecast a $718,000 deficit by the end of the fiscal year. At a meeting this month, commission members voted to request up to that amount from the solvency fund. That amount also would have to be repaid.