Lebanon school board members unanimously agreed to take the first step Monday night, July 19, to put the renewal levy on the Nov. 2 ballot.
“A non-renewal would be financially devastating,” Sotzing said.
Financial projections completed in May, which assumes the November levy will be renewed, show the district will run out of a cash reserve by 2012. That’s different than the forecast completed in October 2009, which showed the district running out of reserve funds in 2013.
Sotzing said the district started dipping into the cash reserve in January, when property reevaluations took effect and negatively impacted the district. He added that state funding has dropped, 1 percent this year and 2 percent next year.
Board member Ryan Patterson Jr. said he supports the levy because it’s “a simple matter of mathematics — expenditures are exceeding our revenues.”
“Our revenue comes from local means and state means, and the state means are being cut every year. If we want a good school district, that means a good community, we need to step up to support it,” he said.
Renewing the three-year property tax, which generates $4.2 million a year and is being collected at 5.4 mills, will not increase the amount homeowners are already paying, about $165 per year for a $100,000 home, according to Warren County Auditor Nick Nelson.
Financial data illustrated by pie charts, line and bar graphs are posted on the district’s website and displayed for public viewing in the school board’s meeting room on Holbrook Avenue. The data shows that the district’s $7,822 cost per pupil expenditure is the lowest in the county, the next lowest being Wayne local schools at $8,251, and one of the lowest of all public schools in the state.
Lebanon’s cost-per-pupil rate was reduced after a significant budget shortfall forced the district to make cuts to staffing and services in 2005.
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4542 or rwilson@coxohio.com.
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