Canfield schools renewal levy to be on November ballot

By ROBERT CONNELLY

rconnelly@vindy.com

CANFIELD

Canfield voters will decide on a schools renewal levy in November.

School officials approved placing the emergency, five-year renewal levy on the ballot to generate $890,000 annually at its meeting Wednesday. The Mahoning County Auditor’s office will determine the millage needed to raise that amount.

It was first passed in 1986 at 6.5-mills, but has lost millage as less has been needed to annually raise $890,000. The levy last was approved by Canfield residents in May 2011.

That year, it was a 1.6-mill levy, and Canfield Superintendent Alex Geordan said school officials expect it to be a 1.6-mill levy again.

“We’ll stress that it’s no new monies,” Geordan said.

“It’s already budgeted money that we need ... to make sure the offerings we have are retained,” Geordan said.

Asked if school officials had thought of replacing the levy, bringing it back up to the original millage when it was first passed nearly 30 years ago, Geordan quickly said no and that the district “needs to live within our means.”

School officials also approved later start times at Canfield Village Middle School and Canfield High School for next year. Those exact times have yet to be set, but Geordan said the middle school would start about five minutes later next year and the high school about 20 minutes later.

This is being done to allow the district to combine the middle- and high-school bus routes. The district combined those two routes in the spring during a feasibility study. “It went very smooth,” Geordan said. “We had plenty of room on the buses, and we were not overloaded.”

That will allow the district to cut diesel fuel costs by one-third because the district will have an elementary bus route and the combined route, and no longer three separate routes. It also will save wear and tear by the buses not being on the road as much.