Board cancels levy for new building

Several residents asked the board to renew the high school principal's contract.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NORTH JACKSON -- A 3.85-mill permanent improvement levy that was to generate money to help build a new high school/middle school here has been removed from the May 2 primary election ballot.
At their meeting Thursday, Jackson-Milton school board members announced that the levy, which would have raised about $681,450 annually, will be scrapped largely because of recent local property tax reassessments.
As a result of the recent reappraisal, "many property owners were hit hard with an increase in their property taxes," explained Superintendent Buck Palmer.
Many residents and school officials have expressed a desire to see a new facility built on more than 100 acres the district owns on Mahoning Avenue to replace Jackson-Milton High School, built in 1913.
In recent years, the high school has been plagued by several problems, one of the biggest being a leaky roof.
Reappraisals are conducted every six years, and because of the tax burden the levy would likely have posed for some people, this is not the right time to ask residents to shoulder additional taxes, Treasurer John Zinger noted.
Zinger said the district will be able to tap into additional revenue and that officials are "using all available resources to accommodate taxpayers." Some money could be used to repair the high school's roof, work Palmer estimated could cost around $700,000.
Zinger said officials are trying to be prudent with spending the district's money.
Developing an alternative
Palmer added that it might take about two months to develop an alternative plan for coming up with additional funds.
In other business, the board took under advisement whether to renew high school Principal Joe Malmisur's contract. More than 100 parents, teachers, current and former students and others came to the meeting to voice support for Malmisur, whose two-year contract ends July 31.
During the public portion of the session, several dozen people urged school officials to renew his contract. Several residents told the board that Malmisur helped their children to improve their grades and that he treated everyone fairly and was there for whoever needed him.
Zinger also swore in Joe Yochman as the newest board member. Yochman, of South Newton Falls Road, Lake Milton, owns Yochman Excavating Inc. and will serve the remainder of former board member Scott Bowles' term, which ends Dec. 31, 2007. Bowles left to take an out-of-state position.