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NEW KNOXVILLE - Voters in the New Knoxville School district will see an additional 6.5-mills property tax levy on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.
The permanent levy, if passed, would bring in $587,000 annually that would go toward general improvements. It would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $228 a year, according to the ballot language.
The original building went up in 1938 with additions and upgrades made in 1958, 1977, 1999 and, most recently, 2008 with the addition of two new classrooms in the elementary wing of the building.
School board member Brittany Clark said property owners would essentially be taxed at the same rate they had been for 18 years until a pair of bond levies totaling 6.5 mills fell off in 2022.
The only levy currently on the books is a 1.5-mills permanent improvement levy passed in 1985 that Clark said generates about $40,000 each year.
That amount is not enough to sustain the district over the long haul, as many capital improvement needs have surfaced, such as a leaky roof and a failing HVAC system, Clark contended.
She noted that the district has spent $120,000 on improvement projects in the last two months alone.
Plus, over the last few years, the permanent improvement fund has been tapped to pay for a new school bus, new school van, utility terrain vehicle for snow plowing and maintenance, masonry work, parking lot blacktop, plumbing repairs, a new walk-in freezer for the cafeteria, network router and switch upgrades and other expenses, according to the levy committee.
As of Aug. 31, the permanent improvement fund balance was $28,943, according to Clark.
"We are not in deficit spending mode. Right now we are holding steady, but our issue is our aging facilities," Clark told the newspaper. "Our building that we still use was initially built in 1938. We have much of the original flooring, we have the original galvanized pipes and we're getting to the point where things are starting to leak. The roof is leaking significantly."
A new roof would cost upwards of $250,000 and flooring about $7,000 for one classroom, she said.
Then there's the HVAC system, which Clark said has required repairs nearly every month, each to the tune of about $12,000.
"Rather than keep putting a Band-Aid on, per se, on the roof and the HVAC, we would like to replace them," she said. "A new boiler, for instance, is over a million dollars."
She also pointed to the need for additional classroom space and a new bus.
"We have a rapidly growing vo-ag program. We don't have enough space for that class any longer, so that's another thing," she said. "We have a need for a handicap-equipped school bus. Those run about $140,000. That would be one of the first things we would purchase as well when we receive the funds."
Passing a permanent levy is essential for ensuring that the school can continue to provide a safe and enriching environment for students while fostering a sense of pride and cohesion within the community, the levy commitee said.
"The reason we made it permanent is because the community is ever changing, there's lots of unknowns within the government and public school funding and as a school board we were elected to look out for the school, and that's what we're trying to do," Clark said. "We're trying to make sure that New Knoxville School has a permanent income that we know can be used for the aging facility."
She also cited the district's continued academic success as grounds for pursuing a permanent levy.
"We recently just got a five star (Ohio Department of Education State Report Card) rating for the second year in a row," Clark said. "We have great teachers, great staff, great students and we're trying to maintain the building that they deserve for how well they're doing."
Clark said she's been encouraged by how positively the community has responded to the levy.
"I think our community knows that we have an aging facility, and they know that our school is the center of the community," she said. "We have a very small town and a small school, and they know to keep the town and to keep up their current property value that the school has to succeed."
