NEWS

River View district seeks operating levy renewal

Joe Williams
Reporter

WARSAW – The River View Local School District will ask voters to renew a 4.8-mill, five-year operating levy on the Nov. 3 ballot.

“This is a levy renewal that will not raise taxes,” River View School Board President Brent Porteus said in a news release. “And the revenue helps us provide the quality education our residents have come to expect.”

Voter approval would move the district another step toward requesting a bond issue to help pay for replacing and renovating existing school buildings, Superintendent Dalton Summers said. But that will not happen until spring, at the earliest, he said, and it hinges at least partly on acquiring some state money.

If the operating levy passes at the polls, it would bring in $2,005,384 annually, according to Coshocton County Auditor Chris Sycks. It would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $94.76 per year.

That would not be any new or additional money, Summers said, but rather the same taxpayer cost and district earnings now in place.

The current operating levy is set to expire at the end of this year, Sycks said, but will be collected through 2016. If voters approve the renewal in November, collection on it would not begin until 2017, she said.

This November’s election is the first time the district can place the renewal on the ballot, Sycks said. If needed, it could try again in the spring or next November and still keep the collections coming in uninterrupted.

“Renewals typically do well here,” Summers said.

Voters first passed this operating levy in 1991 and have renewed it ever since, he said. Money from it covers current expenses, which can include salaries, utilities, books and more.

Last fall, district voters approved a 1.8-mill permanent improvements levy that brings in $548,000 annually, Sycks said. It also operates on two continuing levies that began in 1976 and 1987, she said.

River View is preparing a master plan for submission within the next two weeks to the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, Summers said. That will likely include renovating the high school and junior high schools and replacing and combining the elementary schools, he said. If the commission approves the district’s plan, the state could pay for 19 percent of the work.

“We’d be responsible for 81 percent,” Summers said. “If they accept it in September, that gives us one year to put it on the ballot.”

If the commission approves that plan in September, the district could put a bond issue on the ballot in the spring or fall of 2016, Summers said. The district will not know how much money it will need through a bond issue until it gets word from the commission.

The district has four elementary schools — Keene, Union, Warsaw and Conesville — some of which are at least 100 years old, the superintendent said. With much lower enrollment than 50 years ago, the district is considering consolidating the elementary schools into one or two facilities.

“At this point, we’re definitely leaning towards the one,” he said.

The high school is 50 years old. The junior high was built in 1978, making it the youngest school building in the district.

The district’s aging school buildings pose challenges, he said.

“Our current buildings no longer work for us,” Summers said in a news release. “They are outdated, inefficient, and many of them present significant health and safety hazards. Our kids and our community need something better.”

jwilliams6@gannett.com

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