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Two renewal levies for Austintown schools to be on November ballot
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Township residents will see two school-levy renewalsbefore them in November.
Superintendent Vincent Colaluca said because they are renewals, residents will see no property-tax increase.
A five-year, 4.9-mill renewal levy first was passed in 1991 and collected $1,763,752 in calendar year 2015. A five-year, 7.3-mill renewal levy was first passed in 1996 and collected $3,157,297 in calendar year 2015.
The cost of both levies to an owner of a $100,000 home was not available from district officials Wednesday.
The Austintown school board unanimously voted to seek renewal of the five-year levies and to request the Mahoning County auditor to certify the total current tax valuation of the school district and the dollar amount of revenue that would be generated by the renewal levies.
“It would be very difficult to operate the schools without those funds,” Colaluca said.
Also, the board hired Benjamin Baldner as assistant high-school principal at Fitch High School. He is on a two-year contract, starting Aug. 1, and will make $72,094, and is coming from the Phoenix area.
Colaluca said he was among several candidates interviewed by a committee in two rounds of interviews. He had been a teacher, mentor and an administrator in Arizona and also worked with Teach America.
The board also approved a few tweaks to the Chromebook computer program. Students at AMS and Fitch will have their $20 general-supply fees waived as Chromebooks will be distributed to each student next school year.
The $20 fee will continue at Austintown Elementary School and Austintown Intermediate School.
The district will allow families to not pay the $50 insurance fee for using the Chromebook, but if the device is broken or damaged, the family would be responsible for the full cost of the repairs or purchase of a new laptop.
Board member Harold Porter did not support the $20 fees at AES and AIS.
Colaluca said the Chromebooks have reduced the need for paper “so we wanted to be fair to our parents and take away the $20 instructional fee and have the opportunity to use that money toward the insurance plan.”
The board approved the retirement of three longtime district employees. They are Theresa Ferrando, guidance counselor, 35 years; Jim Sulik, art teacher, 32 years; and Patricia Prentis, art teacher, 32 years. Colaluca said the district is in the process of filling those vacancies.
The board honored the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program members for their wins at the STEM Gravity Racing Challenge in Akron last month. Austintown Middle School students Zach Richards won first place in the stock category, and Victor LaRose and Jamie Knutti took first and second place, respectively, in the super stock division.