Campbell schools again ask voters to approve operating levy

By EMMALEE C. TORISK

etorisk@vindy.com

CAMPBELL

Renewal of a 14.4-mill, five-year levy in November will ensure that the Campbell City School District continues to move in the right direction, school officials say.

In the 2014-15 school year alone, the district has made a number of positive changes, said Jennifer Kavouras, chairwoman of the Campbell Levy Committee and a teacher of English as a second language at Campbell.

First, the elementary and middle schools have been merged into a single entity that provides a more-seamless flow of instruction for kindergartners through seventh-graders.

Instructional time at the middle-school level also has been restructured, providing students with core classes — math, science, language arts, social studies — that are a minimum of 70 minutes, instead of 50 minutes.

Plus, additions to the curriculum include a science, technology, engineering and math program that begins in the third grade, and expanded dual-credit offerings, which give students the opportunity to earn both high school and college credit at no cost to them or to their families.

They’re all changes that the district hopes to maintain, Kavouras explained.

“We want to make sure [voters] can see the positive that’s happening here,” she added.

Kavouras pointed out that the levy is nothing new — it was first put on the ballot in 2000, then renewed in 2005 and 2010, according to district officials — and that the district is not seeking any new funds.

The levy will raise $989,711 annually, which will go toward the district’s operating expenditures. It will cost the owner of a $100,000 home approximately $444 each year or $37 each month.

Superintendent Matthew Bowen indicated that the levy generates the funds “necessary to provide educational service to students.” In the 2012-13 school year, personnel costs — or, more specifically, salaries and fringe benefits — accounted for 76.32 percent of the total operating expenditures of the district, according to Campbell City Schools’ most recent district profile report from the Ohio Department of Education. The state average is 76.46 percent.

Purchased services, supplies and materials and other expenses accounted for the remaining 23.68 percent, compared with the state average of 23.61 percent.

Likewise, in the 2012-13 school year, the average annual teacher salary in Campbell was $56,257.91, while the average annual administrator salary was $69,520.50. Statewide, those average salaries were $57,966.46 and $76,831.61, respectively.

Teachers did not receive an increase to their base salaries in the 2013-14 school year, but did receive a 1 percent raise on their base salaries for the 2014-15 school year, Bowen said.

He added that the district’s staff members understand the “necessity to be fiscally responsible while also providing the greatest opportunities for our students,” and that they welcomed the recent reorganization of personnel to make that happen. It’s all been part of doing more with less, Bowen noted.

“They’re always willing to accept change to improve student achievement,” he said.