Students in the Buckeye school district would end their days around 1 p.m. if voters reject a property tax increase on Tuesday’s ballot.
The district, which has lost tax increases a dozen times in a row, will have to cut another $1.3 million from its budget next year to break even.
That will mean shrinking the school day to the minimum allowed by the state, Superintendent Brian Williams said.
Students would be in class 5½ hours, about two hours less than they are now.
The elementary school day would end around 1 p.m., and the junior high and high school would let out around 1:15 p.m.
“We’ve got people figuring out the cost of day care,” Williams said. “We’ve got a lot of people asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of calculations.”
If the levy fails, Buckeye schools also would stop serving hot lunches, which are available to any student who wants to buy one. About 18 percent of the students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch based on income.
Children who qualify for free lunch would get a brown bag lunch to take home at the end of the day, Williams said.
Buckeye, in Medina County, is one of seven area districts on the ballot for the special August election Tuesday.
Barberton, Woodridge and Louisville also are seeking additional money for operations. Coventry needs a bond issue to secure state funding for a new high school and to reduce the district to three buildings. Osnaburg wants to pass a 1.25 percent earned income tax. Dalton has renewal of a 2-mill levy for permanent improvements on the ballot.
Statewide, 36 districts are on the ballot, according to the Ohio School Boards Association.
Buckeye’s situation will be one of the most drastic if it doesn’t pass a levy.
“We’re eliminating art, music and phys ed from the elementary school,” Williams said.
Union employees are starting the second year of working with expired contracts because the treasurer cannot certify the district will have enough money beyond one year. The district hasn’t passed a new tax for operating money in 18 years.
“Without extremely large concessions, we wouldn’t even be able to certify a contract,” Williams said.
The financial situation is brighter in Coventry, which is the only district on the ballot seeking money for construction.
Coventry schools became eligible to receive state money from the Ohio School Facilities Commission in April to tear down Erwine Intermediate School and replace it with a new high school. The current high school would be renovated to become the district’s only K-5 elementary school. The middle school also would be renovated, and Turkeyfoot elementary would be closed.
All of Coventry’s buildings would be within a quarter mile of each other.
The state would pay $11 million of the high school project, which is 37 percent of the cost. The $28.3 million bond issue would pay for the rest of the new high school, about $17 million, with the remainder of the bond issue used for renovations.
The bond issue is 4.89 mills for 34 years. The district is combining that with a 1.1-mill permanent improvement levy that would not require voter renewal.
“We have not had [permanent improvement] money in this district since 1999,” Coventry Superintendent Russell Chaboudy said.
The district pays for maintenance and building improvements out of the general fund, as well as debt payments for three previous energy-savings projects.
Passage of the permanent improvement levy would save the district’s general fund between $500,000 and $600,000 a year.
“If we pass this issue and a renewal in November, we will not have to go on [the ballot] for operating money for several years,” Chaboudy said.
Barberton, Woodridge
Elsewhere in Summit County, Barberton and Woodridge seek new operating funds.
Barberton is asking voters for an 8.52-mill levy that would add about $260 to the school taxes of the owner of a $100,000 home, a 22 percent increase. Woodridge is trying for a 6.83-mill levy that would add $209, a 17 percent increase for the owner of a $100,000 home.
Both districts have frozen teachers’ base wages. Barberton also froze increases for years of service and attainment of advanced degrees.
Both districts also have negotiated increased contributions to health care by moving employees from paying a fixed amount toward the premium to a percentage of the cost.
Barberton teachers had been paying the equivalent of about 7 percent, but in the current three-year contract, they pay 10 percent the first two years and 12 percent the third year.
“It’s really important for our community to know that the staff took a lot of sacrifices before we even got to this point,” school Treasurer Ryan Pendleton said.
Woodridge’s teachers had been paying the equivalent of about 4 percent toward their premiums. They paid 7 percent in the first year of their contract, 8 percent the second year and will pay 9 percent in the upcoming school year, the last year of the contract.
“It’s a percentage, so as our rates went up, their contribution went up,” said Woodridge Treasurer Deanna Levenger. “Getting from a fixed dollar to a percentage is a very [significant] concession.”
Louisville, Osnaburg
In Stark County, Louisville and Osnaburg seek new money, too, but they’re taking different approaches.
Osnaburg, a district with about 877 students, hopes to spare property owners by passing a 1.25 percent earned income tax. The school board promised in 1997, the last time voters approved a new tax, to make the money last five years, according to the district.
Osnaburg has cut more than $1.5 million over the past three years, but this upcoming school year will be the last one the district ends with a surplus. The following school year will end with a nearly $800,000 deficit under current projections.
An earned income tax would apply to salaries, but not retirement or unemployment benefits, which favors retirees and the unemployed. It wouldn’t tax dividends or capital gains. It also spares farmers and other owners of large tracts of land from increased property taxes.
But for people earning salaries, the tax would dramatically increase their contribution to Osnaburg schools, according to a Beacon Journal analysis.
The owner of a $100,000 home with an income of $50,000 would pay an additional $625 in income tax, a 66 percent increase in school taxes.
Louisville has waited even longer for new operating money.
“We haven’t passed an operating levy in this district since 1992,” Superintendent David Redd said. “We’re going to end the coming school year with a very small cash balance. When we look out, it gets increasingly ugly.”
At the end of the 2013-14 school year, Louisville will be about $2 million in the hole, which deepens to more than $5 million at the end of the next school year. The district has negotiated a pay freeze with unions in both base salary and increases for years of service and advanced degrees.
“There’s not a whole lot to negotiate when you have no money,” Redd said.
John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the education blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/education.