Buckeye School Board decides not to put levies back on the ballot

Jul. 4—ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — After deliberations, the Buckeye Local Schools Board of Education voted not to place a the $36.9 million bond and .5-mill permanent improvement levy for the third time, to pay for the construction of a new school building for the district.

The proposal required four out of five votes to proceed.

Three board members voted in favor of the measure, and two against.

As a result, the proposal did not pass, and the levy and bond will not go back on the ballot.

The levies failed in the 2023 November election with 1,526 votes in favor and 2,324 votes against the issue.

The final, official results in the 2024 March election was 630 votes for and 1,853 against, according to the Ashtabula County Board of Elections.

President Shannon Pike said the Board has heard from the public, and have offered as much as they could with this option with a change in local share.

Treasurer Kassandra Brand said the district was going to put up $10 million dollars in cash to lower the ask to the community for this third attempt, lowering the ballot issue from $46 million to $36 million.

If passed, the levies would have been in play for over 37 years to cover the costs of replacing the the district's four current school buildings.

The project included demolishing Edgewood High School, Braden Junior High, Ridgeview Elementary and Kingsville Elementary, and the construction of a new preK-12 building.

According to Ashtabula County Budget Commission member Kris Paolillo, the 8.9-mill bond levy was estimated to bring in $46,626,000 yearly and the .5-mill permanent improvement levy $133,000 yearly.

Board member Roman Vencill said that there would be a higher turnout in November 2024 due to the presidential election and the Board is doing all they can to help provide tax relief to the community and people within the district with children, including community eligibility provision and no athletic and class fees.

At the meeting, the board approved the agreement between the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce [DEW] and Buckeye Local School District for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision for the four-year period of July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2028.

Brand said there's a larger cost to keeping the older buildings operating.

"We definitely have a multi-year plan to replace pieces and parts of the roof on our buildings," she said. "We just did parking lot repairs at all of the buildings. We've put in the mini-splits for air conditioning in all of the buildings. We definitely have a plan in place to keep those repairs going as needed."

Brand said that when the valuation increases came out and the taxes increased for everyone in the county, other districts had access to an emergency levy. The districts currently receiving those funds were able to give money back to the residents, if the funds were not needed.

She said unfortunately Buckeye doesn't have any emergency levy funds to give back.

"That's why I believe the board is trying so hard to take away the extracurricular fees, to take away the instructional fees and give out free breakfast and lunch," Brand said. "To give 10 million dollars if that would have been approved towards the buildings."