Erie County school district is confident levies will officially pass

ERIE COUNTY — One Erie County school district is celebrating a win for levies passing after getting tallies from eight counties despite outstanding votes still being counted.

Major wins and losses for Northeast Ohio school districts

Superintendent Chris McCully has claimed victory for Erie Huron Ottawa Vocational Education (EHOVE).

"We won by 455 votes. That's a number I'll never forget in my entire life," McCully said.

A bond issue for EHOVE joint vocational school district unofficially passed Tuesday night, and EHOVE plans to use the money for campus improvements.

"I know nothing's official until the secretary of state certifies the election, but as far as we're concerned, we believe we won," McCully said.

Voters across eight counties vote on the issue, and then all the totals are added together.

In Erie County, Board of Elections Director Alex Jones says the numbers were within a tight margin, and they're still counting.

"We still have quite a few outstanding ballots left to count," Jones said.

That's because of absentee and provisional ballots. So far, 57,000 voters across eight counties voted on this bond issue, including locals in Erie, Huron, Ottawa, Lorain, Ashland, Richland, Seneca and Sandusky counties. According to an unofficial list, the yes and no votes for each county were close.

For example, as of Thursday, Erie County had 13,410 yes votes and 13,085 no votes. In Huron County, 10,214 voted yes, and 10,311 voted no.

When you add it all up across the eight counties, the EHOVE levy is passing. But Jones tells me they will continue to count.

"We owe each taxpayer the thoughtfulness and the thorough fullness to count each ballot correctly before we say yes or no to something this big," said Jones.

The elections must be certified by Nov. 26, and if the numbers stand, McCully says the 36-year bond will generate $210 million, which will go towards renovating EHOVE. As well as replacing older buildings and adding new programs.

According to EHOVE, they turn away hundreds of high school and adult education students because they don't have the building space to expand programs like Heavy Machinery, Dental Tech, Bakery Program and Veterinary Science.

"The labs that we have right now will be much bigger, much higher. The students will have more opportunities to learn and be much better prepared for the workforce, and it's going to attract more workers to the area and Ohio," said McCully.

EHOVE trains more than 1,000 students in hands-on career tech training for in-demand fields now and into the future, which helps the workforce development in an area that desperately needs it.

"We have struggled with a loss of population, and therefore, a lot of companies that exist here are growing but have had a really hard time finding staff that are ready to jump into the workforce," said CEO of Greater Sandusky Partnership Eric Webster. "And in the long term, we are going to have the facilities we need to support the state-of-the-art training for our citizens to be able to compete for jobs in the 21st century."