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Niles Schools holds public session to explain new type of levy on Nov. 6 ballot
2 members of committee say taxes won’t rise
By Ed Runyan
NILES
School officials and members of a citizens committee took a swing at explaining the substitute levy that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot.
They also tried Monday night to shift the focus from the first substitute levy in Trumbull County to improvements in student achievement and Niles pride.
Parents Shelly Lamb and Katie Fallow, members of the Niles Levy Committee, told an audience of about 75 people at Niles McKinley High School the levy doesn’t increase taxes for district taxpayers.
It will raise the same $2.6 million per year as the two existing levies, but there could be a small, one-time bump in revenue for any new construction in the district.
They explained the district decided to ask voters to make two existing levies permanent because “voters feel we’ve been coming back to you too often” with levy requests, Lamb said.
Both women said they are lifelong Niles residents and have children in the district who will depend on the district to be effective for many years to come.
The women also showed slides indicating that Niles taxpayers foot the bill for about 20 percent of the cost of education, which is about half of the state average.
Ann Marie Thigpen, district superintendent, also showed dozens of slides on Niles students’ performance on the state report cards. The first one showed the district’s English, language and art scores rising from below the state average in Grade 3 to high school in 2017 to having six of nine above the state average in 2018.
Because the middle-school scores were still below average, the district is using a $600,000 grant to address it.
“We have some very good things going on in Niles Schools,” Thigpen said. “The focus has been on literacy the last three years,” she said.
There were also improvements in math, science and social studies from 2017 to 2018, she indicated with charts.
Residents, however, still expressed confusion about how property- tax levies work in Ohio, but Steve Evinsky of Niles said he is comfortable taxpayers like him won’t pay more than they do now for the substitute levy.
His concern is with the district’s desire to make two levies permanent that voters currently get to vote on every 10 years.
One person in attendance balked when the moms showed a slide indicating the district would have to make staffing cuts before the next school year if the substitute levy fails Nov. 6.
If the substitute levy would raise the same amount as the two existing levies, why would the district have to make cuts if it fails, one man wanted to know.
Lori Hudzik, district treasurer, explained the district could still ask for the two existing levies to be renewed in fall 2019 and in 2022 if the substitute fails Nov. 6.
But not having the levy that expires in 2019 renewed by the start of the 2019-20 school year would mean making cuts in case the 2019 levy isn’t renewed in November 2019.