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Fairfield school board votes to put levy on ballot, cut dozens of staff

Fairfield School Board President Jerome Kearns (left) and Vice President Dan Murray discuss the levy for the November ballot on Thursday at Fairfield Intermediate School.

Staff photo by Pat Strang Fairfield School Board President Jerome Kearns (left) and Vice President Dan Murray discuss the levy for the November ballot on Thursday at Fairfield Intermediate School.

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By James Sprague, Staff Writer Updated 8:56 AM Wednesday, August 10, 2011

FAIRFIELD — It will now be in the hands of voters in November whether to approve an operating levy for the Fairfield City School District.

The Board of Education decided unanimously Aug. 4, in front of a full house in the Fairfield Intermediate School cafeteria, to place a 6.5-mill operating levy on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The levy would bring in an estimated $9.27 million a year to avert an approximately $9 million deficit at the end of the 2012-13 school year, said Treasurer Nancy Lane.

The levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $199.06 a year, or $16.59 per month.

It will carry the district through June 30, 2014.

The levy is needed to maintain the district’s current operating standard and educational programs for students, board member Balena Shorter said. “We’re trying to basically maintain what we’ve already got,” Shorter said. “Why should we give our kids less when we’re talking 65 cents on every $100?”

Board member Sharon Ko echoed Shorter’s stance. “This is one of the most conservative school districts in Greater Cincinnati,” Ko said. “We can do with less, but can we do what we need to do?”

The board’s approval of the levy drew both support and criticism from residents in attendance.

“If we start taking tools away from them, what are we doing for their future?” said Chris Johnson of Fairfield, a parent of three students. “We only get one pass, one chance, at educating our children.”

Former board member Arnold Engel said he will be mounting a campaign against the levy, which he said is not needed because he believes the district has not been fiscally responsible.

“The budget can be balanced without a new levy, it can be balanced without $600 pay-to-play (fees) and it can be balanced without taking our students’ buses,” said Engel, of Fairfield. “What this board needs to do is stop the excessive and wasteful spending.”

The school board also approved at the meeting the reduction of 20 various staff members, including some bus drivers and educational assistants. It also approved the reduction of 13 custodians and one HVAC technician to save approximately $662,166. The job cuts drew the ire of custodian Tracy Morgan, president of Fairfield City Custodians Local 568.

“It’s all fine and dandy to get rid of us if that’s all we did was clean,” Morgan said, “but we do anything and everything someone asks of us.”

Morgan said the board made no attempts to work with custodians to restructure their contracts to save the district money, as it did teachers. “We didn’t even get asked if we wanted to help in the savings,” he said. “How are we going to tell our friends and family to go vote for a levy?”

If the operating levy is approved, it will not allow the district to call back employees who have been laid off, board member Mark Morris said.