As one of only six Ohio districts in fiscal emergency, Cloverleaf schools’ hopes of avoiding future deficits were shattered Tuesday as Medina County voters rejected a 6.3-mill additional levy.
Administrators said they will revisit the polls in November.
The request for new money failed for the fourth time Tuesday, by about 500 votes, according to unofficial results from the Medina County Board of Elections. A similar issue had failed by only 44 votes in May.
“Tomorrow is the first day of our November campaign,” said Dan Kubilus, superintendent of the fiscally distressed district.
“But it’s not all bad news,” he continued. “I’m pleased to have passed the renewal levy on the ballot today. That maintains our status-quo funding level.”
The renewal levy will continue to raise $2.8 million annually.
But the district, which might need to borrow more money from the state in the short term, expected to use some of the $3.7 million that the additional levy would have raised to pay off debt and avoid a $15.7 million deficit expected by 2017.
Though Kubilus is thankful for the renewal, he regrets not being able to restore full-day kindergarten, beef up security or reinstate after-school programming — all goals with the additional levy requested.
Other school levies decided Tuesday night were a successful 7.5-mill renewal for Orrville schools in Wayne County and a failed 5.5-mill additional levy for Field schools in Portage County.
The Orrville renewal levy last passed five years ago. It received support from 71 percent of voters Tuesday. In its third time passing public muster, the levy will collect $1.62 million annually over the next 10 years.
Field’s additional levy, removed from the May ballot after former Superintendent Beth Coleman resigned, failed by about 200 votes, as about 53 percent of voters rejected the measure.
Superintendent David Heflinger had said that, should the measure fail Tuesday, the board would attempt the levy again in November. Additional cuts are inevitable without more revenue.
Heflinger had hoped to renew previous cuts made to busing, arts and music programs and physical education with the funding from Tuesday’s levy request.
He could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.
Any additional spending reductions would follow what the board has characterized as “significant” cuts of $1.5 million made over the past two years. Those cuts equate to a 7.4 percent reduction in operating costs.
A portion of the levy also would have addressed permanent improvement or facilities issues, including repairing the middle school roof, upgrading an aging bus fleet and offsetting costly state mandates that require online testing for all students in the 2014-15 school year.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com.