SPENCERVILLE — With a history of warm relations between the school district here and its voters, those who turn out Tuesday to cast their ballots will decide on a one percent income tax renewal for operating expenses.
“According to the Allen County Auditor and the Tax Commissioner of Ohio, it will raise approximately $900,000 a year for five years. Those funds go into the general fund for general operations in the school district; things like salaries, transportation and utilities,” said Superintendent Joel Hatfield.
The bond issue passed in November 2006 was for 5.87 mills and will continue collecting $6,810,000 over 28 years. The board’s fiscal responsibility enabled the district to reduce the Permanent Improvement Levy from 2.0 to 1.4 mills.
The superintendent believes voter support is an essential component of the district’s success.
“The community has been extremely supportive of our school district. Our bond issue passed in 2003 with about 73 percent support and the last time, it passed with approximately 75 percent support. Voters in our district, as a rule, are very, very supportive of our schools,” he said.
Voter support was the foundation of the school’s construction project, which was completed last winter.
The 29-million-dollar project began in April 2005 and consolidates all the district’s students under one 180,000-square-foot building. It includes four kindergarten classrooms, 16 elementary classrooms, 12 middle school classrooms, 10 high school classrooms, state-of-the-art labs, art rooms, music rooms and more.
Thanks to voter support in past elections, approximately 1,700 fans of Bearcat basketball can be seated in the school’s gymnasium.
Many community members also appreciate the various multi-purpose rooms the school designed when drawing floorplans. A multi-purpose “cafetorium” seats 450 students for lunch and 850 persons for various performances and programs.
Respect for taxpayer dollars was a primary motivation when the district included “green” technology in its plans, installing a geo-thermal heating and cooling system in order to save money on utilities for many years to come.
The local share of the project cost was $5,599,000 and project alternatives were paid for locally, to the tune of $443,600 for the steel roof and more. Due to state budget constraints, the district paid 100 percent of the cost of the roof. However, those restraints did cause the district to concede to what Hatfield felt was cheaper tile. The money came from Improvement Funds and Permanent Improvement Funds.