MIAMI VALLEY — CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated that the Xenia School District levy would increase taxes. The levy on the May ballot is a renewal that will not increase taxes for residents in the district.
Several larger school districts in the area will soon be turning to their residents to pass tax levies to help fund the districts.
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News Center 7 Anchor Nick Foley reported that administration officials were hopeful that the school’s board would approve the resolution this coming Thursday in their final vote.
“We’re not looking at today, we have to plan for the future,” Huber Height Superintendent Jason Enix declared.
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The district proposed the tax levy after operating in a deficit for the second straight school year.
The levy is expected to generate $6.9 million which would help the district operate at its current budget and eliminate the deficit.
The increase in tax would equate to $284 for every $100,000 in property value per year.
“There’s a whole lot of factors that goes into what the state funding model will look like every two years but 2005 is the last time we’ve had any additional revenue locally generated so that’s the last time a new operating levy was passed,” Enix said.
Enix said without the additional funding, Huber Heights School District would be forced to make “major cuts to its budget in the near future” with about 85 percent of the cuts coming from paid positions.
“When you start talking about millions of dollars worth of reductions, there really is no way around it that doesn’t have an impact on the reduction of force on some level,” Enix stated.
Like Huber Heights, the Xenia School District recently decided to once again ask for a school levy to help with its operating budget, a renewal levy that was narrowly rejected by city residents on last year’s ballot.
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As for Huber Heights, the resolution will most likely be up for a final vote at Thursday’s school board meeting. If approved it will head for the May ballot with public workshops scheduled between.