Board considering renewal levy

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

Youngstown

City school board members expect to decide next week about placing a levy on the November ballot.

The 9.5-mill levy, originally passed in 2008, expires at year’s end. The measure generates $5.2 million annually for the district.

Blaise Karlovic, interim treasurer, told board members Tuesday that without the levy dollars, the district will be in deficit spending this school year.

He suggested the board consider a renewal levy that wouldn’t cost taxpayers more than what they’re already paying.

Without a renewal, half of the levy proceeds will be lost the first year and the loss would compound throughout the five-year forecast, Karlovic said.

Lock P. Beachum Sr., school board president, said the district would have to make deep reductions if it lost the levy dollars.

Beachum said the board would decide at the July 24 meeting.

To be placed on the ballot, the board must give the legislation two readings. The deadline is Aug. 8.

Late last year, the board approved placing a reduced levy on the March 2012 ballot believing the district’s finances were stable enough to be sustained with the lower funds.

That levy was expected to generate $3.5 million annually for four years.

The board last February, though, pulled that proposed reduced levy from the March ballot after the state informed the district it would receive about $4 million less from the state than what was anticipated.

The reduction was because the district’s enrollment dropped.

In May, the district learned the enrollment wasn’t as low as previously reported so the loss in state funding was about $1 million.

In other business, the board approved resignations for teacher Will Bagnola, longtime president of the Youngstown Education Association, the union representing city school teachers, and Jennifer Walker, an East High School English teacher who was the 2009 Ohio Teacher of the Year.

Both secured other jobs.

The board also named Jeffrey Vrabel the chief of transportation. His salary will be $50,020.

The former transportation chief was named the coordinator of buildings and grounds but will earn the same salary, $52,588, as she did in the former post.