School levy finally passes
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Feb. 14, 2007

School officials plan to continue examining district financial figures closely even though they finally got some winning ballot numbers when district voters approved a 6.5-mil operating levy in a special Feb. 6 election.

With all 36 precincts reporting, Cuyahoga County Board of Election figures showed the levy passing with 4,077 votes for it and 3,383 against it. The levy will raise more than $5 million starting in 2008 and stops the elimination of more than 50 to 80 jobs, district sports and extracurricular activities as well as the summer education enrichment programs. District officials had said they would cut all those items on top of reductions already approved by the district earlier this year after four consecutive defeats of operating levy proposals between November 2005 and November 2006.

“It’s an important victory for the students and the education process in North Olmsted.” said School Superintendent Kurt Stanic. “We had taken the high road in the previous campaigns and not threatened cuts, but unfortunately that didn’t work. So we had to take another tack this time and talk about jobs and programs and taking apart the programs that led us to that excellent rating from the state for our district. I’m very pleased that we did not have to go about taking out workers and programs which helped us achieve that rating.”

Stanic said the victory does not mean the district will immediately restore cuts already made in January or approved for later in the year like cutting school busing to minimum standards April 1 or cutting three district administrators and their support staff effective Aug. 1.

“Everything will be examined very closely by district officials and the board of education,” Stanic said. “We want to put the district in the best possible position for now and the future. We have already worked on putting sound fiscal policies in place and we will continue to make ourselves have even tighter fiscal policies.”

School Board Vice President John Lasko, who has frequently scrutinized district financial policies and moves since joining the board, said voters realized the potential ramifications of the vote in approving the operating levy this time.

“We gave them reason for approving the levy,” Lasko said. “There was a lot riding on this vote in terms of people, programs and that excellent rating earned by the district.”

Lasko said he will continue to examine various district financial and educational programs closely.

“Absolutely,” he said. “We have an obligation to the city, its residents and our students to provide the best possible system with sound educational and financial policies in place.”

Lasko said he anticipates district and board officials continuing their examination quickly.

“We have to look things over and have some decisions made by the end of March,” Lasko said. “I would look for many areas to be considered during that time period.”

Board President Mike Raig said after the win that it was a tough but necessary levy campaign for the district and the city as a whole.

“We needed to let voters know what was going on with the district and what would happen,” Raig said. “People wanted us to have sound policies in place and they apparently let us know what they wanted in the district with this vote. Having a good educational system is important to any city.”

Board member Joanne DiCarlo said the vote allows the district to keep moving forward.

“It was important to keep educational programs and people in place,” she said after the levy vote was announced.

School spokeswoman Vera Brewer said in addition to the votes, other numbers also played a huge role in creating a winning levy campaign. Those numbers were crucial because after four other campaigns, the levy supporters didn’t have a lot of financial resources available for use in promoting the levy.

“We had a lot of volunteers from both people in the schools, students, parents and concerned citizens doing a lot for us,” Brewer said. “We had people out in the neighborhoods distributing information and talking about it to people and groups. We had people working the phones and we got people getting out there on a cold winter day and voting. We couldn’t have done this without all those people and what they did.”