Westerville’s growing schools seek tax hike

Westerville residents will vote in November on whether they want to pay more taxes to their schools.

The district’s board of education approved a resolution earlier this month to proceed with placing a 1.95-mill bond issue and a 5.9-mill operating levy on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Superintendent John Kellogg said the proposed bonds and operating levy are needed because of aging buildings and rising enrollment in the district that’s projected to gain another 1,300 students in the next decade.

Since 2000, the Westerville school district has seen its enrollment rise by roughly 1,700 students, Kellogg said. The district had just above 15,000 students in October 2018, according to Ohio Department of Education data.

If approved in November, the two measures would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $274.75 more.

“I don’t make this decision to propose to raise taxes casually,” Rick Vilardo, vice president of the board of education, which voted on the proposal on July 15, told The Dispatch. “I think it’s a real thing and I think it’s important, but ... it’s the right direction for a district that’s continuing to grow.”

The board approved the 5.9-mill operating levy over a slightly smaller 4.9mill proposal.

Nicole Marshall, the district treasurer, recommended the 5.9-mill levy, saying it positions the district to be in a stronger financial position for the next three years.

Current projections show the district spending more than it brings in by fiscal year 2021, she said. Expenditures are currently projected to exceed revenues by $8 million that year, then $16.7 million in fiscal year 2022, according to a five-year financial forecast Marshall presented to the board in May.

Kellogg said the levy would help the district maintain its current levels of services and programs.

Asked for examples of what the money would support, he pointed to Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes in high schools, as well as support for mental-health services.

Kellogg said the levy also would help hire additional staff to meet the growing enrollment.

The 1.95-mill bond issue would raise $103 million over 37 years, according to the district.

Kellogg said the bonds would help fund the construction of a new middle and elementary school in the southern portion of the district, near Minerva Park.

The money also would finance renovations and expansions of older elementary schools, Kellogg said, with a priority being placed on those that are roughly 50 years old. If approved, all the district’s buildings would receive safety and security updates, he said.

Collection for the bonds will begin in fiscal year 2020, while collection for operating levy wouldn’t kick in until fiscal year 2021, Marshall said.

Westerville collected about $30.3 million in funding from the state in fiscal year 2019. The recently approved twoyear state budget increases that to an estimated total of $31.8 million in fiscal year 2020 and $32.5 million in 2021.

In the last November midterm elections, five school districts in Franklin County proposed tax increases through bond issues, levies or both. All five districts received approval from voters.

Westerville’s proposed bond and levy package marks the first time since 2012 that the school district has asked taxpayers for new money. An emergency operating levy that passed in 2012 was extended in 2016.

Kellogg said $37 million in renovations currently underway at Westerville South High School were financed using existing resources.

“You just don’t want to keep having to ask the voters to support you financially, because it is a difficult ask,” he said.

kstankiewicz@dispatch.com @kevin_stank