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Issue 39 Campaign. |
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Why should
I vote for Issue 39 on November 4th? |
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The Midview Schools
provide a quality education for all students and that
quality makes our communities better because it offers
strong futures for our children. While our students are
accomplishing great things in and out of the classroom, our
district is facing difficult financial struggles that
threaten the quality of education.
Issue 39 is a 2.5 mill issue—we are only
asking voters for the minimum amount needed this November.
Without it our community gets worse and falls behind.
Tuesday, November 4th, Vote for Issue 39 and KEEP
EDUCATIONAL NECESSITIES. |
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Why does
Midview need a Levy right now? |
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Midview is asking voters
to approve this small issue because property taxes in Ohio
are frozen and don’t keep up with severe inflationary
pressures. Issue 39 will allow us to keep the programs,
teachers, and technology our kids need to succeed. It’s only
a 2.5 mill issue for 5 years, legally called a permanent
improvement levy. |
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Why doesn’t
the Board just make cuts instead of putting a levy on the
ballot? |
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The district has been
fiscally responsible and has already cut more than one
million dollars from the budget. In fact, Midview
already has the lowest per pupil instructional spending in
the county. Further cuts would devastate our schools and
would hurt our community. The Midview community takes pride
in its schools, and the quality of a school system affects
the value of a homeowner’s investment. We feel it is our
responsibility to go to the public one more time to ask for
your support before making cuts that will severely hurt the
education of our students. |
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What is a
PI Levy? |
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A Permanent Improvement
(PI) levy is a tax that can only be used for items lasting
five years or more. PI can only pay for investments like
up-to-date textbooks, modern classroom technology,
maintained facilities and safe student transportation. By
law, it cannot pay for salaries. |
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How long
will this PI levy last? |
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Issue 39 is a 5-year levy.
The Board believes that giving the voters the opportunity to
review and renew this issue (and others) every five years
safeguards the voters’ money by giving them the chance to
non-renew if the money isn’t used wisely. |
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What will
this cost me? |
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The passage of this
2.5-mill permanent improvement levy will cost an additional
$76.56 per year for every $100,000 in appraised property
value. With the average home in Midview appraised around
$150,000, the average home owner will pay an additional
$114.84 a year, or, $9.57 a month, to keep Educational
Necessities in the classroom.
Lorain County residents can log on to the
Auditor’s Website, which will automatically calculate
your property value cost for you.
If you’re 65 or older, don’t forget to
take this into consideration: the Homestead Exemption that
is saving you money on your property taxes will
significantly lessen the impact of the new levy! |
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What will
the money be used for? |
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As a PI levy, monies can
only be used for things such as up-to-date textbooks, modern
classroom technology, maintained facilities and safe student
transportation. A vote for Issue 39 will help KEEP
EDUCATIONAL NECESSITIES for Midview students. |
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As a
Midview parent with a high school student, I’m already
paying for school fees and pay-to-play fees for my child.
Why should I vote for this levy? |
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The Midview Schools
recognizes that the community is facing tough economic
times. That is why we are only asking voters for the minimum
amount needed this November to keep educational
necessities for Midview students. Issue 39 is a
2.5-mill PI Levy—the SMALLEST levy amount on the ballot by a
school in Lorain County.
If this levy does not pass in November,
the Board must make $1.2 million in cuts—since the district
is already working with a bare bones budget, these cuts must
come from the educational program and will affect the
education of your children. |
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What are
the benefits if this levy passes? |
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Passage of this levy will
ensure that Midview can keep providing an excellent
education to our students and maintain pace with other
school districts in the county. There are no bells and
whistles if this levy passes. We are only asking to keep
educational necessities for our students.
It’s a meaningful investment in our
schools because it targets dollars for specific items. The
issue is the right thing for Midview. Without it our
community gets worse and falls behind. |
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What
specifically will be cut if the levy does not pass?
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Without this 5 year PI,
the district will need to cut an additional million dollars
from the already bare bones budget. Since there is nowhere
else to cut, the district will have to consider:
 | Laying off teachers and tutors
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| Postponing the integration of today’s
classroom technology |
| Not replacing textbooks that are more
than 15 years old |
Those cuts would devastate our schools and
would hurt our community. |
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How do I
know the Board will use the money as they say they will?
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The current Board of
Education is made up of all new members—individuals who were
elected to office by the community for their ability to
rebuild trust in school leadership and ensure district
residents are represented fairly. The Board’s primary goal,
as developed through a long-range planning process initiated
in 2005, is to “establish trust through open and honest
communication”.
Board President David Zunis addresses your
question with these words: “As the new Midview Board of
Education, we can not change the past. But we must move on
from decisions that were made by previous leadership. What
happened in the past was wrong, and as the new Board, we
promise to not make the same mistakes. I encourage all
members of the Midview district to move forward with us and
support the children of this community through Issue 39.”
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How can I
help? |
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There are many
opportunities to help support the passage of Issue 39, at
home and in your community. The Funding the Future committee
is seeking donations,
volunteers,
endorsements, and most
important, your vote FOR Issue 39 on November 4th. If you
have any questions, please contact
info@midviewyes.org. |
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Exactly how
many teachers will be laid off if Issue 39 does not pass? |
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Layoffs are painful to do.
However, if Issue 39 does not pass, the district must make
$1 million in additional cuts from an already bare bones
budget. There are very few places left to cut (the board has
already made $1 million in cuts over the last few years).
Therefore, one of the areas the board will have to look at
is our staff. By contract, layoffs must be made based upon
seniority, and they would need to be made until we are no
longer in the red. The board will do everything they can to
not affect the educational program (focusing cuts on other
areas first) but eventually staff will be affected. At this
point they are not able to give exact numbers, because so
much of it will fluctuate depending on the fluctuating
budget. In addition, if we say it will be 10 positions, and
have to cut 15, this creates further distrust and
uncertainty in the public eye…yet another thing we can’t
afford in these difficult times. |
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In your
campaign literature you have talked about how PI money can’t
be used for salaries, and yet you state staff will be one of
the areas cut if Issue 39 does not pass. Can you explain?
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As you read, PI money
cannot be spent on salaries. It can only be used on things
that will last 5 years or more…things like textbooks,
technology, buses, etc. However, since Midview does not
currently have a PI fund, these costs are coming out of our
general fund. If this issue does not pass, and the board has
to make $1 million in cuts from the general fund (since
there will continue to not be a PI fund) they will have to
cut things which are paid for out of the general fund…and of
one of these things is staff salaries. This is not double
talk, this is one of the difficulties we have in explaining
the complexities of school finance. |
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Didn’t we just
pass a levy? Why are we on the ballot again? |
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The most recent levy that
was passed by this district was in May 2007, and it was a
RENEWAL levy…it provided no new money into the district. The
last time new money was voted in was in 1993…fifteen years
ago. This means that the budget Midview has worked from has
remained flat since 1993…however, as you know, there have
been plenty of increased prices in the last 15 years. And
this is why the schools are asking voters for a small levy
at this time. Additional money is needed to continue the
quality education we provide to our community’s children. If
we do not receive additional money, we will have to make $1
million in cuts, and these cuts will affect the quality of
education that we can provide. |
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How do
students who opt-in to the district affect the bottom line? |
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There are currently 155
students who “opt-in” (also known as open enroll) to attend
Midview. In many instances, these are students who have
always attended Midview, and either a divorce in the family
or some other complication has caused the family to move out
of the district, and it was in the best interest of the
child to have him or her continue education at Midview. In
other cases, the parents may be building a home in the
district and have their child open enrolled until they move
into their new home…the idea being that this provides a more
seamless education. Other students are “guests” to the
district.
At the same time, there are 111 Midview
students who “opt-out” of the system and attend school
elsewhere. This leaves a balance of 45 students, for which
we receive roughly $350,000 in enrollment funding. These
students are spread out over 13 grades…adding only 1-2 per
grade level. If we were to stop this program, we would not
be able to reduce costs through reduced staffing or busing,
for instance, but we would be out $350,000. These students
are not currently increasing our costs: if they were, we
wouldn’t do it. FYI: most open enrollment students do not
ride the bus here in the district because they live outside
our boundaries. For those few students who live close enough
to the boundary that they can walk to a bus stop, we do bus
them. There are only 10 students who use this option; all of
them are elementary students. |
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