5.9-mill school levy to be on May ballot
By Kevin Kelley
Fairview Park
Published Feb. 15, 2006

School board members Monday night unanimously approved putting a 5.9-mill operating levy on the May ballot.

If passed, the new levy would raise an estimated $2.13 million each year over a four-year period, after which the levy would expire. The levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $180.69 per year, school officials said.

Regardless of whether or not the levy passes, the district will cut $2.6 million from the 2006-07 budget. Those cuts will be almost entirely permanent, said Superintendent Brion Deitsch.

The board directed Deitsch to cut $2.6 million — the projected deficit for the 2006-07 school year — at its January meeting as a means of streamlining and restructuring the district.

Deitsch emphasized that while the district is trying to minimize the effect the budget cuts will have on students, these will not be superficial cuts.

“These are real, live reductions involving teachers and administrators,” the superintendent said.

Details of those cuts, including the number of staff positions affected, will be made at the school board’s Feb. 21 meeting.

“Part of the problem that we’ve been faced with in Fairview Park is having to come back to the voters so often (for levies),” said Tom Davis, president of the board of education. “So it’s part of a restructuring strategy to try and minimize the impact on property owners and try to streamline the operations of the district but still provide the quality education our student get and deserve.”

Davis said the Fairview Park School Committee, a political action committee, has recently begun the planning the campaign to promote the levy.

Davis said the campaign would likely be similar to the successful 2003 effort which saw the passage of a 7.2-mill emergency operating levy.

Although Davis said all the public meetings promoting the $50 million joint school-city Gemini campaign made it clear that the school taxes toward that project were part of a capital campaign, he anticipates some will still ask why that money can’t be used for operating costs.

“That will be part of the challenge that the Fairview Park School Committee will have to undertake — continuing to educate the community about the difference between a permanent improvement capital campaign like Gemini and an operating campaign,” Davis said.

Despite the $2.6 million in cuts soon to be made, Davis said the levy needs to be passed to fund the schools for future years.

Davis, like the superintendent, said he is frustrated by the state system of funding education.

“I can’t imaging a board member that isn’t,” Davis said. “Frustrated not only with the system but the lack of action to fix it.”