Levy Soundly Defeated5.25 mill levy goes down by 58-42 margin......
By Candi Brooks
This Week Staff Writer
As school board member Bob Horton gazed at the precinct-by-precinct voting results on the screen in front of him Tuesday night, he could read the message on the wall. It was "no," plain and simple.With 53 of 56 Worthington school district precincts reported in on Tuesday night, the 5.25-mill Worthington levy was being defeated by a margin of 58 to 42.
The unofficial breakdown was 4,944 votes for the levy, 6,833 votes against."These are strong numbers," Horton said. "I call that a mandate. People don't want to pay more taxes and they are taking it out on the Worthington schools." Horton said the board will definitely return a levy to the voters by the end of the year. The only question is timing-the August ballot or the November ballot. The size of the levy cannot be the same, though. "There is no way we can go back to the votes with that same amount," he said. "We're going to have to make some serious adjustments."
Meanwhile, the district must be ready to make budget reductions if voters do no approve a levy in 2006, said Superintendent Melissa Conrath."We can't go into the school year without a plan in place to make ends meet,"she said. Though she has only been in the district for four months, the message she heard as she met with voters was that there were weary of frequent levy requests.
The district has placed three levies on the ballot in the past five years. Horton said he was surprised that the out-come was not closer. "What's interesting is there really wasn't any opposition," he said. "The numbers are like in the past when we've had organized opposition."
Though they steadfastly declined to call themselves levy opponents, John Herrington and Mike Alfred formed in March an organization called Educate Worthington.On it's website and in a public forum, Educate Worthington provided information about school spending that was not available from the district of levy supporters. The web site received 1,300 hits in two months."I've been optimistic that people are ready for a change," Herrington said Tuesday night. Like Horton, Alfred was surprised by the lopsided results. "There is no glee in this, but the reality is they can't continue to aske for money every two years," he said.
Levy campaign co-chair Saul Seigel said he hopes residents of all districts will join together to force state lawmakers to find a better way to fund schools in Ohio. In short the school board must make some tough choices, he said. It is incumbent upon the board of education to do things that won't be pleasant," Seigel said.
The issue was a combination operating/improvements levy. Five mills would have allowed the district to continue offering current programs. Without it, the district will face a $6-million deficit at the end of the 2007-08 school year.
The permanent improvements part of the levy would have raised $11.4-million over the next five years, or apporximately $2.3-million a year to oay for capital projects like computers, buses and building repairs.
The levy would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $191.41 annually in property taxes. That property owner already pays $1,276.25 to the schools each year.
cbrooks@thisweeknews.com"These are strong numbers," Horton said. "I call that a mandate. People don't want to pay more taxes and they are taking it out on the Worthington schools." "What's interesting is there really wasn't any opposition," he said. "The numbers are like in the past when we've had organized opposition."I guess someone has been asleep during the board meetings or just downright ignored those citizens who took time out of their day to make their views crystal clear to the board of education.
In short the school board must make some tough choices, he said. It is incumbent upon the board of education to do things that won't be pleasant," Seigel said.Don't worry the teacher's contracts are safe and that's the most important thing of all. Those raises are nearly double what the typical employee recieves. There are many within our community that have just as important jobs and yet receive far less in compensation.
There are federal grants available for some of the district's needs I guess Worthington is too good to take a federal grant, they must view it as taking a hand out. At one school board meeting a teacher from within the school district that teachs in Columbus offered to provide information that gave the schools grants for the much needed computers.
Yet at the same time their teachers won't tell them how they've no compassion by asking the taxpayers to give up things in their own lives because of the educational elitism and entitlement they believe are theirs because they're teachers.
Our communities would really be in trouble if the many other professions that keep our country alive & well pulled the same stunt.
Remember this is the same thing the UAW is waking up to and it never fails to amaze me that the UAW at Delphi is ready to strike really screwing themselves. They will in turn screw the auto industry as we currently know it and our economy.
Yet at the same time they believe much like the illegal aliens (these people are criminals) who are attempting economic blackmail by yet more days of threatened boycotts against the sovereignty of the US because they don't like our immigration laws.
