The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
DIFFICULTIES DISTRICTS FACE
Schools struggle seeking voter approval on levies
Some school districts could have struggled getting levies for operations passed.
In Lorain County, districts such as Sheffield-Sheffield Lake City Schools and Elyria City Schools are no different.
Sheffield Schools Superintendent Mike Cook said it’s challenging getting
levies passed because of its size.
Cook said the district tries to educate voters on the importance of the issues facing the school system.
Because Sheffield-Sheffield Lake is a smaller district, its residents pay more in property taxes than those in larger districts, Cook said.
The school district encompasses the city of Sheffield Lake and Sheffield Village, but Sheffield Lake residents pay higher property taxes than Sheffield Village, he said.
In the past, the school district had a hard time passing the General Operation levy because Sheffield Lake voters did not support it because of higher taxes, Cook said.
One of the district’s biggest tasks is trying to prove to the community that the funds are needed and the system will spend it wisely, he said.
“That’s what makes a community good,” Cook said. “You have to keep investing in the kids.”
Sheffield Schools has a $20 million annual operating budget, he said.
At nearly every county school district, including Sheffield Schools, about 75 to 82 percent of their operation budgets pay for personnel, teachers, bus drivers, uniforms and books, Cook said.
Cook said many residents fear the possibility of their taxes increasing and don’t vote.
For example, residents in November 2014 voted down the general operating levy because tax payers may have feared they would’ve had to pay more out of pocket, he said.
After the election, the district went back to the drawing board, trimmed the budget and voters passed the
levy in May 2015.
Another general operating levy again failed in November 2017.
“We only get approximately $1,800 per student from the state,” he said. “When the state reduces funding to us, but our costs stay the same, it poses the issue of needing a new levy.”
The district could seek a substitution levy, Cook said, but it could be tricky.
Overall, voters in the district have been very supportive in the past and Cook.
“I think (voters) do realize that we are operating very efficiently and trying to be very frugal with tax dollars,” he said. “As school costs climb, our revenue from taxes stay the same.
“(When you) combine that with the state pitching in less than they used to, it results in a new money levy being needed. The other way around that problem is to cut staff or programs, and the majority of schools do not have much left to cut.”
With renewal levies not coming up until 2019, property taxes will not increase, but the funds are vital to the operation, Cook said.
Voter fatigue
Voters who live in the Elyria City Schools district are dealing with fatigue, said Amy Higgins, director of marketing and communications for the district.
Higgins also is a volunteer campaign manager for the Elyria Citizens Committee and said she has noticed the district’s reoccurrence in the ballot for renewals and new-money issues for operation or bond levies.
She said a campaign’s greatest obstacle in any election is apathy.
“Unfortunately, with the way schools are funded in Ohio, a great burden lies with taxpayers for school support,” Higgins said. “It’s an up and down cycle because school districts have no means of generating revenue, particularly new revenue, other than through ballot issues.
“The other side to this, of course, is to hold the line on spending, which we do as well.”
Elyria Schools have been extremely fortunate to have a very strong support base in the community for school issues, Higgins said.
“Time and again, over the last dozen or more years, our community has rallied in support of school issues,”
she said. “We are exceedingly grateful for residents’ support and we try to communicate how taxpayer money is spent, and likewise, how it’s saved.”
Year-after-year, the city’s Finance Department is noted for excellent audits and the school district is proud of such accolades because it helps tell their story of accountability to taxpayers, Higgins said.
In terms of a substitution levy, the district has a desire to change the terms of the renewal issues from five- or 10-year term to continuing, so, the critical operating funds they already receive from taxpayers remain in place, she said.
“Loss of such funds would be catastrophic for their district, and any district,” Higgins said.
Elyria Schools will appear on the November ballot with a renewal for nearly $4 million for general operations, she said.
The city’s levy committee, The Elyria Citizens Committee for Quality Education, will host a fundraiser from 5-8 p.m., May 8, at Nick Abraham Ford, 1115 E. Broad St. in Elyria, to help raise funds for levy and bond issues.