Xenia school leaders consider next steps after 3rd defeat at the polls

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I’m working to learn more today about the next steps for district leaders following the Aug. 8 election results. The final, unofficial results show the 4.2-mill, 37-year tax was defeated by a margin of 14 percent, which is double the margin of difference in the defeat on the same issue in May’s special election.

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School Board President Pam Callahan said late Tuesday night after the results came in that the board will need to "reevaluate how to move forward.”

“We spent two years trying to refine our plan,” Callahan said. “We made the best decisions we could with the information we had at the time.”

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The plan to build the new school, at a cost of more than $80 million, was contingent on passing the bond issue within the past 13 months in order for the Xenia school district to receive 40 percent of the project funding from the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission.

“We’re officially out of the running for the money,” Callahan said. “What we do now depends on what we can do.”

Callahan said scrapping the plans for the new school means setting aside planned improvements for technology in the classroom. The current buildings that were to be replaced — Warner Middle School built in 1962 and Xenia High School built in 1976 — are not structured in a way to accommodate the new technology that’s available.