GENOA, Ohio — For the fourth time in less than two years, a local school district is asking its voters to pass an operating levy.
Genoa Area Local Schools are once again asking for voters assistance.
The school board recently approved a $1.3 million emergency operating levy for the upcoming May ballot.
Emergency levies don't have millages, but Superintendent Michael Ferguson said it would be comparable to about 6 mills.
Voters turned down a 5.25-mill levy last November, and two similar levies before then.
"The state, basically, is providing about half of our yearly revenue, we do get a couple percentage points from the Feds," Ferguson said. "But for the rest of it, they basically gave us that and said 'the rest comes from your voters, figure it out."
Now, along with deciding on that emergency operating levy, Genoa voters also have a second levy to decide on: the replacement of a technology levy that was first approved in 2017.
The replacement technology levy would adjust the millage based on 2022 property evaluations.
And in a world of remote learning, smaller and rural school districts like Genoa's are finding it incredibly important to offer the latest tech to their students.
"We can't afford to go backwards by any stretch of the imagination. Our kids deserve to be up to speed on what's happening in the world as far as technology goes, and so we have to move forward with this," Ferguson said.
If approved on May 3, the school district would not be able to collect the funding from these two levies until 2023.