Local News

Warren BOE levy meeting: Board and residents discuss ways to get new levy passed

VINCENT - The public wants better communication from the Warren Local Schools Board of Education outlining how the district is spending its money.

The Warren school board held a special meeting Thursday evening to discuss options after a renewal levy failed to pass in the last election. There were around 40 people attending the meeting.

The district was seeking renewal of a 4.2-mill emergency levy that generates $1,756,000 a year for the district and is used for operational costs. It would have maintained property taxes at their current level. That amount is 35% of the district's operational cost allocations.

There were 2,133 votes cast against the renewal with 1,382 in favor on election night on March 19.

During the public comment period, people said the failure was a result of voters telling the district to live within their means while others questioned how the district spends different money it has available. Others talked about past promises of facilities they were supposed to get when the schools had new buildings built a number of years ago. Others said a proposed new administration building is not needed and more.

Ashley Gates, of Cutler, said she has four children in the district. She said she has talked to a lot of people against the levy and the thoughts she has gotten from those people is the district was misusing funds and no one wanted the proposed new $2.1 million administration building in state funds that was supposed to be used for other projects for the schools.

"Why don't we use those funds to complete the plans that have not been finished," she said of a number of things that were proposed in the past, things like facilities and more that were going to benefit the students and programs at the school.

Board members said they needed to better communicate with the public as there are certain funds that can only be used on certain projects.

"They are wanting to know where the renewal levy money is going, what is being allocated for and they did not feel they got that communication out," said Board President Debbie Proctor. "Our plan is to get that communication out before we would put that renewal levy back out on the ballot, if we do."

She said that is the plan, but they are not sure when they will do that.

"Our plan now is to get the communication out to people of what it is used for," Proctor said, adding they might put out a fact sheet and list what is there.

The renewal levy has been in place since 1995 that is renewed every 10 years and it was time for it to be renewed.

"We did not get out the communication on it before it went out for election," Proctor said. "We don't have to do any quick actions right now."

Treasurer Melcie Wells said the renewal levy has raised the same amount as it has since it was implemented in 1995. Wells said how everything is structured, collections will still remain in 2025 before it would end, if it can't be renewed.

"We have the 2025 calendar year to get it passed," she said.

Board members talked about either putting it on the November ballot this year or waiting until 2025 when the district can better inform people what will be included on it.

Wells said they will be looking at expenditures and more in the coming months and as this topic is discussed more.

Eventually, if they can't pass it they will have to start looking at cuts, but Proctor said they would not cut from the students.

Some people thought cuts were going to be made to busing, which Proctor said wasn't true.

"We will not cut busing," she said.

Board members discussed ways to get it out to the public after a number of residents said they get a lot of their news from social media which is not always reliable.

Board member Bob Crum said he wanted a simple breakdown that can be distributed to the public.

"We have done a very poor job of communicating exactly what the levy is," he said. "We have to do a better job."

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com