School levies fail in special election

By David Skolnick

Voters rejected all six issues on the special election ballot.

Like the opening line of the Human Beinz’s classic song, “Nobody But Me,” voters considering school tax issues in the Mahoning Valley said: “No, no, no, no, no, no.”

The song actually opens with 30 nos, but there were only six issues from five school districts on Tuesday’s special election ballot. All failed, most by huge margins.

“It wasn’t close,” said Robert Rostan, Leetonia’s superintendent of schools. “I’m pretty much at a loss for words.”

Leetonia’s 7-mill, five-year tax issue received only 27.8 percent of the vote. Amazingly, that’s an improvement from the 26.3 percent support received in November 2007.

A 7.1-mill combined bond issue/tax levy for new schools in the Springfield district received support from 37.3 percent of voters Tuesday.

That’s the third and final time for the ballot issue for a $35 million project to build two new schools in the district. The state was going to give about $20 million to the district for the project.

The state gives school districts up to three attempts to get a tax proposal for its share of the construction costs approved by voters.

“We’re disappointed for the students,” said Superintendent Debra Mettee.

The district still needs to make more than $10 million worth of repairs to its buildings, she added.

A tax renewal levy to raise about $1 million a year for the Jackson-Milton school district failed for the third time Tuesday.

It lost by 49 votes in March.

On Tuesday, it lost by 60 votes.

“It’s unfortunate it turned out that way,” said Superintendent Kirk Baker. “The economy is tough right now. We’ve already made cuts, and further ones could be made.”

The school board will decide whether to put the levy on the November ballot, he said.

Lordstown Superintendent Bill Pfahler said he couldn’t believe Tuesday’s outcome. Lordstown saw two school levies rejected by voters, most recently in March.

So the district reduced the tax measure on Tuesday’s ballot by about $105,000 a year and put a five-year limit on the issue. The two failed levies were for unlimited periods of time.

With the reductions, the Lordstown levy received 35.6 percent of the vote. The higher levy without the time restriction received 44 percent support in March.

“We felt we listened to the voters,” Pfahler said. “Residents told us they felt it needed to be lowered. We did that, and we did worse. It’s mind-boggling.”

The district is unsure about returning the levy to the November ballot, he said.

Voters in Southington rejected two tax levies, each for the third time.

A 1-mill additional levy received only 27.6 percent of the vote while a 3.15-mill renewal got 31.6 percent of the vote.

Even though voters once again overwhelmingly rejected a tax levy in Leetonia, the cash-strapped district is going to put it back on the November ballot, Rostan said.

“But it’s hard to believe we’ll be able to convince that many voters to change their minds,” he said. “We don’t have any other choice but to go back to voters.”

The district expects to lay off at least four teachers and three support staff workers around July 2009, and the cuts could be deeper, Rostan said.

“We can operate this year,” he said. “Our problem is the next school year. Without new taxes, those cuts will occur. I’m not sure that will be enough.”

skolnick@vindy.com