Lorain/Elyria, OH
Lorain school board says levy needed
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LORAIN - Lorain Schools will be asking residents in November to pass a levy in hopes of keeping the district out of the red, but a decision wasn’t reached during a special school board meeting Monday night about what kind of levy.
District Treasurer Dale Weber laid out a couple of different options for the school board, including an emergency operating levy that would generate a fixed sum of money regardless of property value fluctuations. A second option would be a current expense levy for a certain number of mills during a certain period of time.
By the end of 2010, the district will be nearly $200,000 in the red, and by the end of 2011 the deficit will run $9.39 million, Weber said.
When asked, Weber told board member Raul Ramos the district’s 787 full-time employees’ salaries and benefits comprise approximately 70 percent of the budget.
If a 5.9-mill levy passed, the district would stay in the black through the end of 2010, but would be $3.6 million in the red by 2011 and would be $22.8 million in the negative by the end of 2013, Weber said.
Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson said after the meeting she’s confident a levy sufficient to keep the financially strapped district operating will pass.
“I think the chances of it passing are good,” Atkinson said. “This community has shown me they care about a quality education and they’ve been supportive and I believe they will continue to be.”
Resident George Koury, 59, quoted a newspaper article claiming Lorain residents spend $2,879 per student compared with other communities that pay as much as $8,000 per student. Only four of the 97 districts spent less on its students than Lorain. Koury acknowledged the figures didn’t include state or federal money a district may be receiving - the figures were just what local residents were paying via levies and taxes, he said.
Koury also quoted the article, which had data from 97 Northeast Ohio school districts, which claimed 43 percent of students in Lorain entering kindergarten needed intensive instruction to help them get ready to read - the highest percentage.
“If we’re going to compete and provide the best educational program,” Koury said, “… we as a public are going to have to say, ‘Wow. We’re last? Less than East Cleveland? Less than Cleveland? Less than everyone?’ ”
Resident Rhoda Lee, 74, told the board the sooner they decide what kind of levy and for how much and let the public know, the better.
“We need to decide now what millage so we can get the word out to the community,” Lee said. “Sacrifices will be made. … I’m sure people will sacrifice and we’ll pass the levy.”
An attempt in November 2008 to pass a 4.9-mill levy failed by 52 votes. The levy committee has filed a lawsuit seeking permission to count 172 provisional ballots from that election hoping enough of them could reverse that levy’s failure.
Board member Jim Smith urged making more effort to get more of the 500 students who’ve left the district during the past decade to return.
“We can’t put all our financial problems on the backs of taxpayers,” Smith said. “We have to look at the students and parents as customers.”
Board President Cynthia Miller said more needs to be done not just to get students to return to the district, but to keep them here by fully restoring programs that have been cut.
“We have to be able to do more with less,” Miller said.
The board voted in the spring to put a $5 million, 10-year levy on the ballot, but later pulled the issue so it wouldn’t compete with the city’s income tax renewal issue.
The board will meet again at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to further discuss levy options for the Nov. 3 general election.
Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.
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They send people to China for lookie-lookie for teecha…and they are gonna ask us for money?
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Exactly ! Got that right!
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You have it right Mr. Koury. Dead last. “Less” than East Cleveland. And, Mrs. Miller, a math lesson for you: less is less. Period. And that is what your school district is: less than virtually every other district in Ohio — less perfromance; less accountability; less attendance; less creativity; less vision; less strategic planning; less communication; less transparency; less pride; less leadership at every level. It does have some “more” as well: More money for its superintendent than for the chancellor of New York City Schools; more grant (free) money than 95% of the school districts in Ohio; more “flavor of the month” programs than Ben and Jerry’s; more non-decisions and “befuddled non-decision-making processes than by any school board in recent memory; more administrators than most districts its size; more conflict of interest situations than most public entities; more mouthing off in public by employees than most can tolerate; more and more families leaving for better opportunities to learn. See, Mrs. Miller — you already do more with less. (And, if you put that 5 Million dollar levy back up, you will need over 2.5 million of it just to pay the superintendent’s new five year contract!) Will you then need MORE for stuff like children’s education? And, let’s not forget the massive amount of money for learning programs that grants provided (and still provide) and LCS was unable to make work for its children (Reading First was just one of MANY). Giving MONEY to LCS is certainly no guarantee that learning and performance will follow. In short, as jokes go, LCS is a really bad one. The only bigger joke would be on taxpayers if they ever support a levy.
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Wow… What timing! Last week it was all about giving the superintendent a raise and longevity and bonuses and a big pension…
NOW it’s all doom and gloom because the school is broke. I’m just guesing that when the hammer comes down, it won’t be Superintendent Atkison that will be giving back money from her salary that they will expect from everyone else…
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Here we go again
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The board and our mentally challenged mayor are going to China…to hire Chinese teachers to teach Chinese to Lorain schoolchildren that have some of the most dismal academic scores in the state.
Yet, they need more money?
There are 1177 school districts in Ohio.
Of those districts, less than 60 have Chinese available as a class.
Furthermore, there are 4299 schools in this state and only 73 buildings have Chinese.
Lorainites are not all negative thinkers, but most of us are certainly smart enough to know what OUR kids need. Not what 70 year olds wish they would have had, not what grammy and grandpappy think would be cute for Jimmy to have, but what down to earth, real parents with real kids NEED to have.
Get the ENGLISH, READING and MATH levels to state minimum standards before you bring in this CRAP!!!
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@Raven…
While I agree with you in general principle, the fact of the matter is that learning Chinese will put our kids further ahead in the global market than learning a language like French (unless looking to do a lot of business in Canada).
The problem is that I doubt kids can pick up ENOUGH Mandarin Chinese in high school to use it for anything more than preparation to take more of it in college…
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Why not see if you can get some money from China while you are there. Don’t expect me to vote for it!
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im not suprised that they have articles about giving the superintendent a raise even though they havent even reviewed the super and now they are going to ask the people for money to keep from going in the whole. what suprises me is that they actually are going to waste taxpayers time and money putting it on the ballot when it has a snowball chance in heck of passing. doesnt anyone in politics have common sense these days?
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You are all stupid fools if you give them one lousy damn dime. Unbelievable! We gave these idiiots here in Amherst their levy and they thanked us by keeping Pay-to-Play at $400 per child. NEVER AGAIN will i vote for anyone’s B.S. levy.
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