Funding for stadium, upgrades sought
The Pickerington school board will ask voters for a new, permanent property tax to fund capital improvements, including a new football stadium at Central High School and a stadium upgrade at North High School.
If approved on the May ballot, the 3-mill levy also would fund ongoing building maintenance, repairs and upgrades, including roof, paving and ventilation work, and technology infrastructure. About $3.4 million annually would be raised by the tax, which would add $105 per $100,000 in valuation to the annual property tax bill of district homeowners.
Pickerington homeowners currently pay $2,260 per $100,000 in local, school and county property taxes, and homeowners outside the city in unincorporated Violet Township pay $2,174 per $100,000, according to the Fairfield County auditor. A 1 percent income tax also helps fund the district.
Pooling tax money to be used exclusively for new physical improvements and ongoing building maintenance in the 10,200-student suburban district makes sense, said Superintendent Valerie Browning-Thompson and Treasurer Ryan Jenkins.
Currently, the district uses its approximately $110 million general-fund budget to pay for daily operations, such as paying its 654 teachers, while also tapping it for capital improvements and maintenance as needed — about $1 million annually the past four years.
A separate fund would allow for better long-range planning, including borrowing money against the levy revenue to tackle larger projects, such as the stadium work, Jenkins said.
Officials want to build a new, artificial-turf stadium for the Pickerington Central Tigers on 66 acres of land the district owns at the southwest corner of Lockville Road and Opportunity Way.
The new stadium would replace a 50-year-old, grassfield stadium that sits in a depression and is occasionally flooded by nearby Sycamore Creek. The current stadium lacks adequate parking and access for disabled people. The new stadium would have eight track lanes (the current one has six), a standard required to host regional track meets.
Plans also call for replacing the grass field with artificial turf at the stadium for the Pickerington North Panthers. Officials also plan other upgrades, such as bringing Pickerington North’s softball fields to the same standard as Pickerington Central’s softball complex.
The high schools have been friendly rivals since the 2003 opening of Pickerington North, and they observe a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses watchfulness.
“Each side of town notices what happens on the other,” Jenkins said.
“If we build a new stadium at Central, people at North will say whaaaaat?” Browning-Thompson added.
Modern stadiums help show off the school district as “a marquee place to be” to residents and families considering moving to Pickerington, Jenkins said.
Resident John Ewing said he’s still learning about the proposed levy and hasn’t decided whether he will vote for it. Athletics are important, and district stadiums and fields should be up-to-date, he said. But he also thinks the amount of money sought seems high, especially for retired homeowners living on fixed incomes.
Ewing, who is 51 and disabled, lives in a rental house. He wouldn’t be surprised to see his $1,000 monthly rent go up if his landlord’s property taxes increase. “It all trickles down,” he said.
Retirees Judy and Jerry Nelson, who are 65 and 67, respectively, sent four children through Pickerington schools and appreciate the district’s high quality. Now though, living on fixed incomes, they must decide what they can afford. Mrs. Nelson said she supports maintaining school buildings, but she isn’t sure about the stadium work.
“Sprucing up athletic fields doesn’t turn me on,” she said. “We need artificial turf? What’s wrong with grass? I would have to take a long and hard look at it before I voted yea or nay.”