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South Range superintendent says November levy "extremely unlikely"
By ROBERT CONNELLY
NORTH LIMA
Residents in Beaver and Green townships most likely will not see a South Range levy in November.
“It will be extremely unlikely that we attempt a November levy,” said Dennis Dunham, South Range superintendent. “There are catastrophic things that can happen to a district” to change that, such as state funding cuts, he added.
In terms of what cuts could be made to improve the financial state of the district, “everything is on the table,” Dunham said Wednesday.
A three-year, 4.9-mill emergency operating levy was defeated Tuesday by South Range voters with 61 percent of voters against it. The levy would have generated $931,838 annually for three years. It would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home $171.50 a year. The district spent between $10,000 and $12,000 for the primary ballot, because no other issues were in front of residents of Beaver and Green townships.
“What we do is we let the dust settle a little bit and determine where we are 100 percent financially with our forecast and whether or not we need to make further cuts immediately or for the 2015-2016 [school year].”
The first round of cuts was approved at the Feb. 16 board of education meeting. Three teachers affected by the reduction in force are Dana Veneskey, an elementary school music teacher; Mark Giesy, a middle school STEM teacher; and Christine Yukech, a part-time science teacher.
The South Range Board of Education next meets 7 p.m. Monday in the band room of the high school.
Dunham still isn’t sure if Giesy’s departure means the middle school STEM program won’t exist next school year.
Americans For Prosperity, a national conservative advocacy and anti-tax group funded by billionaires Charles and David Koch, funded two phone banks and a mailing for ACT Now for South Range Schools. ACT stands for Accountability, Clarity and Transparency.
“We are pleased to see voters reject this levy,” said Baylor Myers, deputy state director for AFP in Ohio. “Raising taxes should always be a last resort. Now it is up to the South Range School Board to increase transparency and fiscal responsibility.”
The Citizens for South Range Schools, the pro-levy campaign, thanked its volunteers who supported the school district in the lead-up to the vote. That group had set up in-home visits in small groups with school officials in the weeks before the election.
Citizens for South Range chairman Larry Maynard and his wife, Cindy, expressed disappointment that the levy failed.
“The district will always be great, but I’m glad that I don’t have to be the one making the tough decisions in the next few months,” Maynard said. “Our board and superintendent do an excellent job providing our students with the best opportunities to help them achieve, but they have very tough decisions to make now.”
Dunham said Wednesday no one from ACT Now has reached out to his office or the school administration with concerns. He questioned the lack of transparency that ACT Now has queried.
“Those people that have concerns would be handled just like any other district. They would reach out to the superintendent or treasurer or school board and we would be more than willing to sit down with anyone that has questions about finance, academics, programs ... We would have to first be asked and” if we were to reach out to them “I don’t know who I would reach out to,” Dunham said.
ACT Now spokesperson Taylor Christian, 18, a 2014 graduate of South Range schools as a valedictorian, responded that ACT’s plan “is to continue attending school board meetings and raising our concerns there.”