Schools seek March levy

By Virgil Hervey

A 1.2 mill permanent improvement levy for the Yellow Springs schools will appear on the ballot on March 4 as Issue 10.

The levy is for the purchase of equipment, maintenance and improvements with a life-span of five years or more only, and cannot be used for salaries, according to District of Yellow Springs Schools Treasurer Joy Kitzmiller.

The permanent improvement levy will be a replacement levy, which means the millage will be kept the same, according to school board member and levy committee co-chair Anne Erickson in a recent interview. By keeping the millage at 1.2, the levy will generate more revenue than it did over the past five years, due to the increase in property values in that time. The permanent improvement levy has been a renewal levy since 1993 and was based on 1993 property values, she said.

The expired levy generated $64,000 per year, while the proposed levy will generate $132,000 per year for the next five years. The increase will allow the district to match the rate of inflation.

“We want to keep the long range in sight,” Erickson said.

Under the expiring levy, the owner of a home with an appraised value of $100,000 is paying $16.84 per year. The proposed levy will cost the same homeowner $36.75 per year, or $1.66 per month more, Erickson said.

Back in November, Kitzmiller reported to the school board that she and Superintendent Norm Glismann had met with the county auditor concerning the permanent improvement levy that expires on Dec. 31, 2008. The result, she said, was certification for 1.2 mills, which is the same millage the district passed five years ago. The board approved the levy in December.

Kitzmiller forecasts the following expenses over the next five years: funding technology, including replacing computers that are five- to eight-years-old and adding LCD projectors in the classrooms at the Mills Lawn School and the high school for a total of $200,000; replacing the asphalt in the parking lot and playground at Mills Lawn at $15,000; replacing the 20-year-old McKinney School heating and air conditioning units at $75,000; preventive maintenance on the roofs of the McKinney and high school buildings at $250,000; purchasing a modern telephone system at $20,000; and replacing school buses at $100,000.

The total for these projects comes to $660,000. The permanent improvement levy will provide $660,000. Any shortfall could be made up from general operating funds, according to Kitzmiller.

Many of the projects will result in savings in the long run, such as the roof repair, which will help avoid the need for total roof replacement a few years down the line, saving about $450,000, according to Kitzmiller, and the heating/air conditioning project, which will help lower utility costs.

As election day approaches, levy committee members are concerned that the taxpayers will not understand what the levy is about and might confuse it with other levies they have passed. Last year the voters passed a capital improvement levy that next expires in 2011, and an operating levy appears on the ballot every three years. Such distinctions as “replacement levy” or “renewal levy” and “operating levy,” “capital improvement levy” or “permanent improvement levy” can be confusing to the voters, school board members agreed.

According to Erickson, revenues from income tax go to operating expenses, she said. The operating levy goes mostly to salaries and benefits. Large capital expenditures are paid for by permanent improvement levies. Capital improvement levies support new construction for the schools.

“The school board has to play the cards it is dealt by the legal system, in the naming of levies, their timing and the split of the funding,” Lapedes said recently.

While the schools have benefited in recent years from the carryover surplus from the one-time payment when The Antioch Company went to employee ownership, the schools are coming to the end of that period, according to Erickson, who said the payment was the equivalent of six years’ worth of taxes. The Antioch Company surplus makes the budget appear that the schools have a surplus, but they have actually been operating at a deficit and have made cutbacks in a number of areas, she said.

Additionally, according to Erickson, the federal government recently passed school safety legislation that will require yearly inspections of the school buildings that may require improvements. This legislation falls into the category of what she calls “unexpected expenses.”

“We need to save the carryover for the unexpected, not use it for everyday expenses,” Erickson said. “It’s just like your personal budget.”

In addition to the two school board members, the levy committee is composed of long-time members Sam Bachtel, Wally Sikes, Carl Maneri, Shelbert Smith and Barbara Krabec, as well as Anita Brown, Rachel Quigley, Jennifer Sherwood and Matt Housh. School board candidates Judy Parker, Dave Triplett and Dave Turner, who were not successful in their campaigns in the last election, are also serving on the committee.

The school district has received an ‘excellent’ rating from the Ohio Department of Education for the past three years. The schools also have been recognized as National Schools of Excellence.

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com