GENOA, Ohio — Genoa Area Local Schools leaders asked their voters to renew an existing levy and approve a new levy on the ballot in Nov.
Voters in the Genoa Area Schools district passed a 3.9 mill operating levy back in 2005. Since then, leaders have been able to get it renewed by voters twice.
The district asked to have that levy renewed again, as well as a second 4.9 mill operating levy is also on the ballot.
Voters voted down the new levy, but approved the levy renewal.
This new levy would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $14.29 a month.
The district's superintendent said if both levies had passed, the district will be able to pull itself out of a six-figure deficit.
Superintendent Mike Ferguson said the additional levy money is necessary as the district has not received an increase in state funding in over six years, while the cost of operating the district continues to rise.
"One is special education costs, those have gone up 86 percent since the last levy that we passed in 2015. And then our health care costs have gone up 20 percent since then," Ferguson said.
As a bit of a give and take, the district will also be able to drop most additional student fees over the next five years, and also drop pay-to-play fees for one whole athletic year.
"We're trying to strike a balance between. We know this is a tough time for people across the board, and I think we just felt like we could do something for our parents by covering the costs of some of those fees," Ferguson said.
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