CMS Showcased at Board Meeting
Chardon Schools Treasurer Deb Armbruster said the district is attempting to prepare for a looming property tax increase by educating the public on what the rise in rates could mean for their wallets.
Chardon Schools Treasurer Deb Armbruster said the district is attempting to prepare for a looming property tax increase by educating the public on what the rise in rates could mean for their wallets.
At the Oct. 16 Chardon Schools Board of Education meeting, Armbruster said she has prepared a fact sheet, as well as a video presentation, available online at www.geaugamapleleaf.com, sharing the ins and outs of a projected surge in property values for 2024.
“FICTION: If property values increase approximately 23%, taxes increase by 23%,” the fact sheet said. “FACT: A 23% increase in property values DOES NOT EQUAL a 23% increase in property taxes for Chardon District Residents.”
Armbruster said because the district has additional voted levies, it does not sit on the 20-mill “floor” other districts do. This means when property values increase, the district’s voted levies are reduced to their original collection amounts when passed, offsetting part of the rise in the inside millage “floor.”
For Chardon, projected figures from the Geauga County Auditor’s Office show a 23% increase in inside millage would produce only about $810,000 — which Armbruster said amounts to about 1.9% of the district’s budget.
The reduction is a result of House Bill 920, a law passed in the 1970s that reduces a levy’s effective millage in order to limit collection to the levy’s original dollar amount when passed.
This means while district residents have voted for levies totaling 78.68 mills over the years, the effective amount collected should fall to about 29 mills after 2023 projected values come in, Armbruster said.
Superintendent Michael Hanlon said it would take a “tremendous” change in property values to push the district down to the 20-mill floor.
“So, if I understand this correctly — if you pass a levy, it actually keeps you from going closer to that floor?” board member Todd Albright asked.
“Correct,” Hanlon said. “(If) the district passes a new 3-mill levy, just making up a number, … that 3-mill levy is now 2.7, or 2.5 effective mills in order to generate that same amount of money, that fixed sum that the voters approved when they approved that levy.”
The meeting also gave Chardon Middle School Principal Adam Tomco an opportunity to celebrate his students and staff as the first school up for the board’s “Building Showcase.”
“When Dr. Hanlon asked the school principals to take some time and present, and kind of — I love the word ‘showcase’ — some of the wonderful things that we are doing in our building, I was instantly excited,” he said. “I asked each grade-level team and our specials teachers and essentially any staff member in the building who wanted to, to remind me of all the wonderful things that we do at Chardon Middle School. … My inbox was immediately filled with all these wonderful activities and learning experiences that we do.”
Tomco highlighted opportunities for students, including a sixth-grade mock trial program run by both social studies and English language arts teachers, which has received praise from parents.
Additionally, an annual fundraiser to provide drinking water to impoverished areas, centered around the novel “A Long Walk to Water,” by Linda Sue Park, has received kudos. Tomco said CMS received thanks for providing clean water to a school in Uganda.
The presentation is available online at www.chardonschools.org.
