Liberty, Weathersfield school levies fail, but Girard aggregate gets OK

The Weathersfield bond issue and levy received yes votes from 43 percent of voters.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

WARREN — Liberty voters overwhelmingly said no to a 9.9-mill, 10-year levy to keep the district out of serious financial trouble. The levy would have raised $2,291,362 annually.

Superintendent Mark Lucas said the result will mean that the district will have to find ways to cut $1.8 million from the district’s budget in the 2009-10 school year. The district already has cut about $400,000 this year, he said.

Among the cost-cutting measures are likely to be staff reductions and busing changes. The school district’s administration is already taking a pay freeze for next school year, he said.

School officials have estimated that without levy passage, the state will soon classify the district as being in either the fiscal-caution or fiscal-emergency classification. Under such conditions, the state could take over control of financial matters in the district, said Treasurer Tracy Obermiyer.

The levy would have cost homeowners with a house valued at $100,000 about $300 more per year.

Lucas has said the state’s Education Choice Scholarship program is the reason the district needed the additional operating revenue. The program offers tuition vouchers for children in academically troubled public schools to attend private schools.

E.J. Blott Elementary School had been in academic watch for two years, making pupils there eligible for the voucher program in 2007-08, but it has moved up to continuous improvement.

According to school officials, 35 pupils entered the system from private schools in February 2007 and April 2007.

All 35 pupils withdrew from the district at the end of the school year, taking the vouchers and funds that would normally go to Liberty schools to parochial and private schools.

Lucas said the district will lose those funds each year until those students graduate from high school.

According to figures released from the district, the total voucher-related loss to the district in 2008 was $628,812.

The calculated loss in 2009 is $701,416. School officials say the total loss by 2015, with all variables remaining constant, will be $5.5 million and more than $8 million by 2021.

Rumors that board members wanted to join another school district had surfaced, but board member Gloria Lang said those rumors are not true.

Meanwhile, the vote total was much closer in Weathersfield Township, where voters were asked to approve a 6.4-mill bond issue and 1.6-mill levy to finance the school district’s share of a construction project.

The measure failed 57 percent to 43 percent.

The measure would have given the district $8.4 million over 28 years from the bond issue and another $131,739 annually for the levy to allow for construction of an addition to Seaborn Elementary School so it could become a K-8 building. The district would also purchase new computers and other technology.

The project would involve demolition of most of the middle school, which is on state Route 46, except the auditorium and gymnasium, which would have been used as a community center. The bus garage there would have remained.

The state would have paid 60 percent of the $19 million project.

In Girard, voters said yes to electricity aggregation, meaning residents have given the city approval to enter into a agreement with an electricity provider to buy electricity from a supplier at a group rate and offer that rate to residents.

The measure passed 71.5 percent to 28.5 percent.

After the city enters into an agreement, property owners will have 21 days to opt out of the plan if they desire to do so. Otherwise, all electricity customers will be included in the plan. Ohio Edison currently provides electricity in the city.

runyan@vindy.com