New Philadelphia Schools removes 9.6 ml May ballot levy request; will ask taxpayers for lower amount in November

  • by Jennifer Kneuss
  • February 26, 2013
  • 333
                        
Summary: New Philadelphia City Schools board of education and administration have announced that they are withdrawing a 9.6 mil levy request from the May 2013 balance. School representatives state that they do not want to request a higher millage than what is absolutely necessary for the ongoing operation of the district, and the possibility of a freeze on school funding cuts as well as a small increase over the next few years has raised the possibility of reducing the levy when it appears on the November 2013 ballot. When the New Philadelphia City Schools school board notified the Tuscarawas County Board of Elections that it was withdrawing its request for a 9.6 mil levy be placed on the May ballot, it was an unusual and unexpected move. “It is typical to see this type of withdraw in the overall Board of Election world, but it is not typical for Tuscarawas County,” noted Sarah Kneuss, deputy director of the Board of Elections. Chuck Miller, director, agreed that having a school levy request withdrawn is unusual. “I’ve been here over a quarter of a century, and seeing any levy requests withdrawn has only happened once or twice before. It has never, that I remember, been withdrawn for a school district. New Phila Schools were able to inform us before we began any printing or programming, so there was no cost involved for anyone.” “This original request (for May)was in response to the $2.9 million dollars in cuts the district absorbed in the 2011-2013 school years combined with the additional projected state cuts of $1.7 million per year through 2017,” explained New Philadelphia City Schools’ superintendent Bob Alsept. “But the current proposed increase of $1.1 million dollars from the State would not replace the cuts already received and do not restore the district to previous funding levels.” As superintendent of Tuscarawas County’s largest school district, Alsept was pleased to be able to inform voters that, although an operating levy will be needed in the near future, a glimmer of good news about Ohio Governor Kasich’s intention to not make any more cuts to the district and to possibly even provide a slight increase in funding has given the Board more time to consider its needs. Multiple cuts and belt tightening have had to take place in the past few years, and the possible increase only prevents the district from having to cut even deeper throughout 2013 and 2014 school year budgets. Still, there are no guarantees at this point as the political debate continues. “We have a wait and see attitude,” he explained. “Although the news is encouraging from Columbus, final funding details won’t be known until June 30 or so. This change in the financial forecast makes it necessary to reconsider our request.” Board members and an informal group of advisory citizens were unified in their intention to make sure that the community’s trust in their financial stewardship remained intact. They did not want to go ahead with the May levy and the higher tax collection that it required just for the district to stay afloat. Many expressed gratefulness at being able to most likely be able to reduce the impact on taxpayers. “Our hope is that we can reduce the millage in November and pass that savings on to our community,” explained the superintendent. “The board…had to make up the deficit we had lost from the state, not knowing what the new budget would be,” said 17 year board member Don Kemp. “That’s how we came up with the 9.6 millage. We now are hearing that we will hopefully get 1.1 million back for the future biennium budget, money that they took away before.” “To maintain our current programs and services that we are able to offer and to continue our mission of creating a safer, more secure environment throughout the district, we will need to go back to our stakeholders in November,” stated school board president Todd Cox. “By then we will know what the void will look like and give us a clear snapshot on what our true needs are going forward to operate our schools. I feel very fortunate to live in a community that believes in a quality school system and I take their faith and trust in the decisions we make very seriously.” In order to hear citizens’ input on critical issues such as school safety and other matters affecting the amount the levy will need to generate, the administration will be hosting a Quakers for Excellence community meeting Thursday, March 7 at 7 PM at the Front Street Administration building. For information, call 330-364-0600.


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