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Emotions pour over at South Range board meeting following last week's levy defeat
By ROBERT CONNELLY
NORTH LIMA
Emotions ran high at times during the South Range school board meeting six days after a levy was defeated.
Those feelings continued after Monday night’s meeting when a group of people separated Richard Ferenchak and another resident during a heated conversation.
Board President Ralph Wince was among the people who separated the two men.
Ferenchak questioned the board on a matter of issues during the meeting’s public-comment section, which at times became heated with Wince telling Ferenchak he had exceeded the time limit for public comment.
Ferenchak was especially critical of the valedictorian system, which is being revamped starting with the class of 2020.
A few people spoke on either side of the levy issue at the session.
“If you really want to know why the levy failed, you have to come out and talk to someone. Not the teachers. Not the supporters,” said resident Dale Rhinehart. “Don’t talk to the 40 percent [who] voted for it, talk to the 60 percent [who] voted no.”
Superintendent Dennis Dunham reiterated his point after the election that it is unlikely the school district will put a levy on the November ballot. Last week, school-district voters rejected a three-year, 4.9-mill operating levy that would have generated $931,838 annually and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $171.50 a year.
On the other side, Sam Landry, treasurer of the South Range Education Association, thanked Citizens for South Range Schools, the pro-levy committee, and the Maynards, the married couple who headed the committee.
Taylor Christian, the 18-year-old spokesman for ACT Now for South Range schools, asked for the school district to do a performance audit through the state. ACT stands for Accountability, Clarity and Transparency.
District Treasurer Jim Phillips responded to Christian and said the state audits the district’s finances yearly.
In board business, it unanimously approved the purchase of a 71-passenger school bus at a cost of $80,911 from Myers Equipment in Canfield. That bus replaces a 1995 bus, which was traded in on the purchase.
Dunham said the approval of an updated five-year forecast for the district “will determine whether we need to make additional cuts for 2015-2016.” That forecast, along with each building’s handbooks, will be discussed at a special board meeting at 7 a.m. May 21 at the board’s offices.