South Range to put another levy in front of voters
Dunham
By ROBERT CONNELLY
NORTH LIMA
The South Range School District is again asking voters to pass an operating levy, but this time it’s for a little less money than the one defeated in 2013.
The board of education voted unanimously Monday night to put a 10-year, 3.9-mill operating levy on November’s ballot. That would generate $707,560 annually for the district and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $136.50 a year.
Last year’s 10-year, 4.8-mill levy was rejected by 66 percent of voters, according to Vindicator archives.
South Range Superintendent Dennis Dunham explained: “Due to some positive numbers with open enrollment and some of our other cost-saving measures, we knocked that down somewhat to 3.9 mills. ... The money it generates is very much a necessity for the future of the district.”
Officials said at their June 30 special meeting the district brought in $511,000 through open enrollment of kindergarten through sixth grade. District officials project that number to more than double to $1,034,000 as the district expands open enrollment to through 12th grade this upcoming school year.
At the June meeting, district officials revealed a projected slim surplus of $30,053 in fiscal year 2016, which then becomes a projected deficit of $707,670 in fiscal year 2017, a projected $1.7 million deficit in fiscal year 2018 and doubling from there.
The South Range district has had several levies fail over the past 10 years. According to Vindicator archives, open enrollment was voted on and started this past school year because of an expected deficit of $850,000 during the upcoming school year.
“We’ve been deficit spending since 2009-2010 ... that open enrollment in it, of itself, is not going to solve it itself,” district Treasurer Jim Phillips said at the June 30 meeting.
In other business Monday, the board unanimously approved handbooks for the upcoming school year for the elementary, middle and high schools, and adopted a district credit-card policy.
“We didn’t have a policy. We didn’t have a card,” Phillips said.
Officials discussed reasons for getting a district credit card at the June 30 meeting. One of those reasons was the increase in teachers buying textbooks and e-books for the district’s I-Pad cart online.