Chardon School Levy Defeated Once Again
The Chardon school district’s 5.95-mill levy met a second defeat Tuesday as voters rejected the issue by 6,091 to 5,692, a margin of nearly 52 to 48 percent, according to the final unofficial results of the Geauga County Board of Elections.
The Chardon school district’s 5.95-mill levy met a second defeat Tuesday as voters rejected the issue by 6,091 to 5,692, a margin of nearly 52 to 48 percent, according to the final unofficial results of the Geauga County Board of Elections.
Voters defeated the same levy by 2,845 votes to 1,889 during a special Aug. 7 election.
“It’s discouraging, but the people have spoken,” said Chardon Schools Board of Education President Karen Blankenship, who added the board will have to decide if it will try a third time in 2013.
“I don’t know what we’ll do. That’s something we’ll have to talk about,” she said. “What I do know is we have to continue to try and make people understand our financial need and (that) we’re trying to use the money we have wisely.”
The levy’s failure marks one of several recent defeats at the ballot box, including a 1 percent earned income tax issue in May 2010, a five-year, 4.29-mill operating levy in November 2010 and then again in May 2011.
The levy’s defeat means the board will meet Nov. 19 to consider eliminating the jobs of 11 Chardon Schools employees, including six full-time teachers, in order to balance the school district budget.
Superintendent Joe Bergant previously announced the $814,231 in staff reductions in early September in case the levy failed.
The staff layoffs can occur anytime before the current school year ends in June 2013.
They include the layoff of a cafeteria employee, a custodian, a secondary education intervention specialist, a secondary education art teacher, a kindergarten teacher, a Chardon Middle School foreign language teacher, a part-time Chardon Middle School literacy coach, a part-time media support staffer, a full-time Chardon High School secretary, a bus driver, a high school guidance counselor who has a teaching certificate and the possible elimination of the Gifted and Talented Program at the elementary school level, which eliminates a teaching post.
Bergant blamed the defeat on people’s unwillingness to support education because of the poor economy and what he believes to be “a trend to privatize schools by the state.”
Paul Stefanko, school board vice president, also blamed the defeat on the economy, but said he believes residents eventually will approve a levy “once they feel they can afford it.
“I don’t think this is because people don’t want to support schools now, it’s because they feel they can’t afford it,” Stefanko said.
As have other board members, Stefanko blamed school funding problems on the State of Ohio’s failure to provide public education with the funds needed to effectively operate schools.
“But what’s lead to this is a state $8 billion deficit, which has forced state officials to reduce the amount of funds available to education without finding alternative funding,” he said. “That just means taxpayers are being asked to pick up a larger share of the funding, something they have been unwilling to do because of the economy while trying to keep themselves financially afloat.”
Voters turned down the 5.95-mill levy despite a massive public education program aimed at informing Chardon-area residents about $5 million in cuts made by school officials over the last five years to cut costs, save money and make the school district financially accountable to the concerns of taxpayers.
