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Niles school board to resubmit failed levy next May
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
Schools Superintendent Ann Marie Thigpen says there is no other choice: The emergency 9.25-mill additional levy rejected by 70 percent of district voters in Tuesday’s general election will be back on the ballot in the May primary.
According to unofficial final results from the Trumbull County Board of Elections, the issue lost by more than 1,700 votes.
“I knew it was going to be a hard fight, but I didn’t think it would go down that bad,” said Susan Giannetti Longacre, board of education president. “I’m disappointed for our students.”
Voter rejection follows a declaration of fiscal caution by the Ohio Department of Education last month after the district forecast a deficit of $320,000 by the end of the current fiscal year. Only last year, the school system emerged from a 13-year long fiscal watch, a more serious designation.
“We met with the Ohio Department of Education, and we have to submit a plan by Nov. 27 that makes us solvent in fiscal year 2019,” the superintendent said.
If the plan is rejected, the district could find itself back in fiscal watch or, worst-case scenario, fiscal emergency as has been the case with the city of Niles since late 2014.
The millage, determined by the county auditor, is based upon Niles property values, Thigpen said. The revenue would be allocated for new textbooks, technology and “our aging bus fleet.”
Thigpen said postings by levy opponents on social media, Facebook in particular, may have played a role in the levy’s downfall. She described some of them as “misguided, inappropriate comments” that were made without any effort to verify their accuracy with the district administration.
“I personally have not received any phone calls, and I don’t know how you receive accurate information without talking with those of us responsible for making decisions,” she said.
The superintendent said the administration has been working with ODE’s Office of School Finance, which will provide a template for the district’s solvency plan, due in less than three weeks. Should ODE reject the plan, the superintendent and board may have to consider district-wide cuts.
“We may have to look at programs, classrooms and every department in this district,” Thigpen said.
When the levy is resubmitted in May, supporters promise an even more intense effort to work for its passage.
“We are going to pound the pavement and look at everything we need to do so that our students get the same opportunities as students in neighboring districts,” Thigpen said.