Valley View Local Schools
Levy details: Additional 6.97-mill continuing levy for current expenses. It would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $213 per year and generate about $1.5 million annually.
Year-end enrollment: 1,915
State report card indicators met for 2011-12: 26 of 26.
Report card ratings: "Excellent with Distinction" in 2011-12, 2010-11 and 2009-10; "Effective" in 2008-09, 2007-08 and 2006-07
Administrators' average salary: $82,329 (State average $76,037)
Classroom teachers' average salary: $56,762 (State average $57,904)
Expenditure per pupil: $10,833
Revenue per pupil: $8,590
Source: Ohio Department of Education, fiscal 2011
The Valley View Local School District has on the May 7 ballot an additional 6.97-mill continuing levy for current expenses. It would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $213 per year and generate $1.5 million annually.
The district implemented $1.7 million in cuts for this school year. Another $1.5 million reduction will occur in the 2013-14 school year after voters defeated an emergency levy in November.
The new cuts include eliminating 11 more staff positions, eliminating junior high athletics and extracurriculars and reducing the salary of principals and assistant principals by the equivalent of two working days.
The levy would run for a continuing period, which is a change from the November levy, which would have run for five years.
“It’s a permanent levy because the district is in enough dire straits financially we don’t see that improving in the next five to 10 years to the degree we can say we don’t need this levy,” Superintendent William Kirby said.
Without new revenue, the district would face a $1.5 million deficit by the end of 2015 after the 2013-14 reductions are factored in, Treasurer Dan Schall said.
Farmersville resident Mike Kilroy, who has lived in the school district for 25 years, said he plans to vote against the levy in part because he doesn’t like that it would be permanent. “It never goes away,” he said.
Kirby said if the levy passes, most of the cuts would remain, but he identified junior high athletics as a possible area that could be restored. If the levy is defeated, all of the reductions remain and the district would return to the voters again in August or November, officials said.
“Either we pass a levy or we do more reductions in the future because we’ve lost enough revenue — both local and state — that the district has to have additional revenue to stay afloat,” Kirby said.
About the Author