Voters approve SWL Local Schools levy

• Southwest Licking Local Schools voters approve renewal emergency operating levy
• Issue will not raise taxes since it is a renewal
• If voters had defeated the issue%2C the school board pledged %242 million in reductions
• Those reductions will not happen now

PATASKALA – Southwest Licking Local Schools taxpayers were faced with two choices on Tuesday: approve a renewal emergency operating levy or watch the district make $2 million in reductions.

Voters overwhelmingly elected to approve the levy. The issue passed by an unofficial count of 4,113 to 1,442, or 74 percent to 26 percent, according to the Licking County and Fairfield County boards of election.

The issue will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $238.88 a year. That is the amount the same resident is currently paying for the levy.

Superintendent Robert Jennell credited the passage to the work put in by a committed group of parents and school supporters.

"It was a team effort," an exuberant Jennell told a large crowd of levy supporters gathered Tuesday night beside the Watkins Memorial High School football field. "It was marvelous to see. It was wonderful to see. I'm so excited about the future of Southwest Licking."

With the levy's passage, Jennell said, the school board will not need to make the $2 million in reductions.

"The process we made clear to the residents of Southwest Licking was, (with the levy's passage), we would maintain our programs that already are in place and the people who make our programs successful," he said.

The school board placed the 7.8-mill emergency operating levy renewal on the ballot after voters in November 2014 defeated a substitute emergency operating levy.

That failure placed Southwest Licking dangerously close to seeing collections stop on the 8-mill emergency operating levy voters approved in 2010. The levy, which generates $4.5 million annually, runs out at the end of the year.

With that reality as a backdrop, the school board vowed to make $2 million in reductions if voters defeated the issue on Tuesday.

The list of reductions included high-school busing, all middle school and high school co-curricular and extracurricular activities, including sports and band, in addition to multiple teaching positions.

Parents, students and school supporters mounted a highly visible pro-levy campaign in the weeks leading up to Tuesday. They staged a march and a rally and distributed fliers, among other activities.

Their work also included forming a community focus group, and Jennell said the group will live on well after the election, allowing Southwest Licking to receive direct feedback from the community on important school topics.

One of the members of levy committee, parent Amy Hoovler-Helwagen, echoed Jennell.

"We need to continue this forward," she told the crowd gathered Tuesday night at the high school. "We get to maintain our programs for another five years, but we are growing and we have outgrown all our facilities. This group, all these people here (need to) think forward now."