6/28/2012 - West Side Leader
     

NORTON —The Norton City Schools District Board of Education moved forward this week with placing a levy request before voters in the Nov. 6 General Election.

In a special meeting June 25, the board adopted a resolution to ask voters to support a 1.9-mill continuing levy, according to Superintendent David Dunn. Board member Jim Bennett was not present at the meeting.

Dunn said the action came two weeks after the board voted June 11 to declare it necessary to levy the additional 1.9-mill levy and requesting the Summit County Fiscal Office to certify the total current tax valuation of the district and the dollar amount that would be generated by the levy. The board vote was unanimous at that meeting, Dunn said.

According to the resolution, the levy would bring $532,903 annually into the district. Dunn said the additional funds would go toward operating expenses, mostly personnel-related items such as salaries and insurance.

He stressed the district has not given raises or added programs, but the money would be used to offset reductions in funding so current programs can be maintained.

According to Treasurer Stephanie Hagenbush, the levy, if passed, would cost $58.19 per year for the owner of property valued at $100,000.

Dunn said specific plans for the levy campaign have not yet been made, but he knows what he wants voters to understand.

“We have spent a significant amount of time reducing our budget over the last five years to stay off the ballot,” he said. “We were actually projected to go in the red about four years ago, so we stretched it out, and we feel like the message we have is that we’ve done a great job of operating in a cost-effective manner and will continue to do that.

“The biggest thing we will stress is we want everyone to know that we continue to provide as many opportunities for students as we can and we’re trying to increase those in the most cost-effective way we can,” he added. “As we continue to do that, because of the way money has been cut from state funds, we need a little help. We’re not in it to start new programs.”

The Norton Board of Education will next meet July 10 for a special meeting. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be Aug. 20.

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