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Beavercreek residents question emergency operating levy

Resident questions need for levy; superintendent says it’s essential.

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By Mark Gokavi, Staff Writer 10:01 PM Saturday, November 5, 2011

BEAVERCREEK — Speaking for what he called a silent majority, Beavercreek resident Tom Forsyth said the Beavercreek City Schools’ campaign for an emergency operating levy is misleading in several ways.

District officials differ and said if the 6.7-mill levy fails, they will have to cut $12 million over the next three years. The levy would generate $10.95 million annually, and officials said it passage is needed maintain Beavercreek’s academic reputation, which includes 11 straight years receiving “excellent” state report cards.

Forsyth, who has lived in Beavercreek since 1973 and whose wife and son graduated from Beavercreek High School, said he is concerned about the message coming from school officials about the levy. While he estimated the levy would cost him about $260 per year, he said his complaint is not just about his tax bill.

“I talk to a lot of people,” said Forsyth, who manages a company that rebuilds machine tools in Dayton. “Most of the responsible people in Beavercreek are certainly not looking to do damage to the schools. We’re just trying to make some sense of all of the compensation, and where the money for the budgets goes.

“I’m kind of voicing a general opinion that I hear.”

Here are some of the key issues Forsyth raises about the levy, and Superintendent Nick Verhoff’s responses.

57 cents per day

• Forsyth contends the district’s use of saying the 6.7-mill emergency operating levy will cost 57 cents per day for each $100,000 of home valuation is skewed.

• Verhoff said every district uses the $100,000 threshold to present levy costs. The levy would cost about $205 per year or $17 per month for the homeowner of a $100,000 home.

Summary: The Greene County Auditor’s Office said earlier this year that only 17 percent of Beavercreek homes were $100,000 or less. The auditor said the average Beavercreek home is about $170,000. That number would equate to $348.50 per year, $29.04 per month and about 95 cents per day.

Pay cuts

• Forsyth said it’s a “con” that the district said all school employees are taking a pay cut and that many teachers still will receive raises despite the district’s claim of a 2 percent pay decrease.

• Verhoff said the district’s entire pay salary schedule shrank by 2 percent, but “if somebody did go up a step, they did get a step. For next year (2012-13), there’s a total freeze, no next steps for anyone.”

Summary: Verhoff said it’s unlikely, but possible, that a few teachers could make more than they did the year before — even with the pay scale reduction — if they met certain benchmarks of education and/or experience.

Overcrowding

• Forsyth said there are only about 200 more students in the district than in 1968 and that thousands of square footage has been added before the addition of two new schools.

• Verhoff said Forsyth’s basic premise is correct, but that there are many mandates that require more space. He said intervention specialists may only have 16 students on their case load and 12 in a classroom at one time.

A teacher with a classroom with students with severe multiple disabilities can only have eight students in a room. Verhoff added that special education services (13 percent of district students), including preschool children, are required by law to have a certain number teachers, assistants and therapists.

Summary: Verhoff added that technology has added four to six computers to many classrooms apart from the computer labs; that pupil-teacher ratios in Ohio for grades K-3 must average 23:1; and that the 170 English as a second language students requirements are mandated.

High pay

• Forsyth said the average teacher in Beavercreek makes about $14,000 above the state average, that some groundskeepers make $20 per hour, some mechanics make $25 per hour, some bus drivers make $21 per hour and some crossing attendants make $16 per hour and receive good benefits.

• Verhoff said a veteran staff — such as Beavercreek’s — is at the high end of the scale. Verhoff said the other numbers are correct, but those numbers are for long-time employees at the top of the salary structure.

Summary: Verhoff said also the district’s pay schedule is in line with nearby similar districts, such as Centerville, Kettering and Oakwood. He said the crossing attendants work two hours per day and that 80 percent of the bus drivers and bus aides work less than six hours per day.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or mgokavi@DaytonDaily News.com.

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