Niles board to put bond issue on ballot

By Jordan Cohen

The state would pay 72 percent of the cost of building new schools.

NILES — The board of education voted to submit a bond issue before the voters in November to cover construction costs for a new high school and two elementary schools.

Board members then heard several in the audience warn about possible resistance to the tax issue from the elderly.

Still to be determined is the amount of additional mills the issue will require. According to previously released figures, the district’s share of the building costs will be about $18.5 million, or 28 percent of the more than $60 million project. The state would pay the remaining 72 percent.

One board member, Dori MacMillan, called upon her fellow board members Thursday night to consider other financing options besides a bond issue, but Superintendent Rocco Adduci disagreed.

“We just don’t have other alternatives,” Adduci said.

Several residents said Niles senior citizens could become major opponents of the bond issue. Some reported vocal opposition from segments of the elderly community.

“I wish they would call and talk to me,” Adduci said, noting that the schools tried to reach out to older residents by scheduling a public meeting for them at the Eastwood Mall in April. “Only six people showed up,” Adduci said.

In another item, the board appointed Robert Marino Jr. as its new curriculum director. Marino, the middle school principal who has been with the district for 16 years, also is president of Niles City Council.

The position had been suggested by the Ohio Department of Education to bring academic courses into alignment throughout the district. Adduci said the new position will not increase the number of administrators, and the salary will be in the mid-$70,000 range.

“We are able to afford this position because we’ve saved $185,000 through our cost cutting,” Adduci said, noting that the savings are in addition to $1.6 million that the board cut through layoffs and attrition.

The board also voted after hearing a report from Marino to purchase new language arts textbooks for grades six through 12 for $190,000. Adduci said the new books will help the school system maintain its curriculum.