Passage of levies good news to schools

The Champion levy failure will trigger $800,000 in cuts.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Ruth Zitnik, the interim Maplewood Schools superintendent and the high school's principal, was still checking the Trumbull County Board of Elections Web site at 4 a.m. Wednesday for results on the district's 5.5-mill additional school levy.
Finally she was satisfied that numbers had turned in the school system's favor, and the levy had passed by 10 votes -- 971 to 961.
The measure may be close enough for a recount, depending on the outcome of the provisional ballots that get added to the results in the next couple of weeks.
Zitnik said she feels good about the result, in part because it indicates the levy committee's plan to get out the vote from recent graduates now attending college was successful. Zitnik said discussions with the elections board indicated that a large number of absentee voters from the school district -- 180 -- cast ballots.
The district is under state fiscal caution and has already started to make cuts, eliminating one bus route and making plans to leave three to four teaching positions vacant at the end of this school year because of retirements, she said.
One administrative position was also eliminated, she said, and the district instituted a pay-to-participate plan. The district also enacted an open enrollment policy. If the levy fails, additional cuts will be made, such as busing and extra curricular activities, she said.
Other levies
Larry Prince, superintendent of the Liberty school district, said the district's narrow passage of its 3.1-mill renewal levy shows that conditions locally are tough for taxpayers. "You can't take anything for granted," he said.
The approval by a vote total of 1,457 to 1,353 means the administration can continue to operate its present programs, Prince said.
In Champion, the failure of the 5.2-mill additional levy by a 1,991 to 1,121 vote will trigger $800,000 in cuts for the 2006-007 school year previously laid out by the school board. Those cuts include reductions in teachers, an administrator, classified staff, a pay-to-participate plan and elimination of textbook purchases and bus purchases.
"As someone who really values education and has never voted no on a school levy, I don't understand why school levies fail," said Pam Hood, Champion superintendent. She said a levy will be back on the ballot sometime in the future, but she said it is unclear when or for how much. The board made $400,000 in cuts to finish this school year with a balanced budget, she said.
Late Tuesday, the results were too close to call on the 0.6-mill additional Warren Trumbull County Public Library levy. It passed 16,001 to 13,956, according to complete results.
Library officials have said the library system would face financial problems in 2007 if the levy failed. Voters had defeated a 1-mill additional library levy in November.
Complete results in the race for the Democratic nomination for Trumbull County commissioner are as follows: Frank Fuda, 12,390; Mauro Cantalamessa, 7,448; Robert Marchese, 5,498; James Melfi, 4,197; Ted Harrell, 848.
runyan@vindy.com