The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Officials focusing on enrollment, facilities
Chardon School District officials have now turned away from thoughts of making cuts and toward responding to enrollment changes and other proactive plans since voters approved Issue 3 May 8.
The 3.9-mill, additional, continuing levy’s passage came on the heels of the failure of a similar ballot issue in the Nov. 7 General Election.
According to the district’s top administrator, its success May 8 will mean the financially stressed school district will be able to continue to maintain a high level of student and community service without sacrificing curriculum or extracurricular activities.
“Places where we were focusing next (if the levy had failed) were in the areas of increased class sizes, increase pay to participate fees, etc,” district Superintendent Michael Hanlon said in a May 29 email exchange.
“With the passage of Issue 3, it will provide the district with some flexibility to respond to enrollment changes by adding some additional staff to maintain more
appropriate class sizes, where we would not have been able to bring back personnel had the ballot issue been unsuccessful. Extracurricular activities will be preserved at current levels and pay to participate fees will not change from the current amounts.”
He said although there will be reductions, they relate more to the district’s reconfiguration plans.
“The bulk of the reductions the district is implementing are coming through reconfiguration,” Hanlon writes. “Therefore, passage of the levy will not really impact these changes in staffing, etc.”
He said the next “major hurdle” for the school district is to “successfully complete the district reconfiguration, including the realization of projected operational savings to the school district.”
“Passage of the operating levy has certainly stabilized the near-term fiscal picture of our school district that was negatively-impacted by reductions in state funding,” Hanlon writes. “The addition of new operating revenue combined with increased operational efficiency at a reduced cost creates a positive and stable fiscal outlook for the district.”
He said one major impact of decreased district operating revenue was having to put its master facilities plan — part of its overall Vision 2020 master plan, first announced in 2015 — on hold indefinitely.
The 3.9-mill, additional, continuing levy’s passage came on the heels of the failure of a similar ballot issue in the Nov. 7 General Election.
“Our facilities continue to present significant longterm challenges both from an educational, as well as and operational perspective. It is apparent that districts around us are facing similar concerns and dealing with those needs through school construction projects,” Hanlon said.
“Next steps for Chardon Schools will include reconvening our School Facilities Task Force to revisit the master planning that was completed and to determine possible next steps to respond to the facilities needs in our district. At this time, no decisions have been made to move forward with the facilities plan, and the work of this group, along with our Board of Education, will be critical in determining how we can most effectively respond to school district enrollment that continues to decline along with aging and outdated facilities.”
Hanlon, members of the district’s levy committee and others expressed their gratitude May 30 at the committee’s final meeting at the district’s board office.
Before the meeting, committee co-chair Gabrielle Boose said in a phone interview the efforts of those involved in promoting the levy’s May 8 passage made a big difference and have been met with appreciation throughout the school district and the community it
serves.
“We were obviously very happy the levy passed,” Boose said. “A lot more people got involved in kind of a campaign capacity and I think that helped. We had parents who volunteered, went door-to-door, et cetera. We had residents who contributed financially, put up signs and things like that. And I think that community effort really helped this time around.” Hanlon concurred. “As a result of the passage of Issue 3 combined with operating efficiencies resulting from reconfiguration of the district, we will be able to hold our budget constant given reductions in state funding support. Our volunteers worked tirelessly to communicate this important message to the community. Approval of the levy will permit us to continue the programs and services that contribute to the exceptional educational experience that has become a tradition in the Chardon Schools.”
The 13 members of the district’s levy committee were in attendance May 30, in addition to Boose and Hanlon, included Karen Blankenship, Keith Brewster, Jodi Clute, Judson Elliott, CoCo Griffis, Madelon Horvath, Dave Jevnikar, Sandy McLeod, Chardon Schools’ Communications Director Ellen Ondrey, Melanie Scanlon and Guy Wilson.