Centerville City Schools has a 5.9-mill operating levy on the Nov. 6 ballot. It’s a continuing levy and would raise $4.9 million in 2013 and $9.8 million annually starting in 2014.

District officials said the levy, which is expected to cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $180 per year, would go toward maintaining educational excellence via high-quality teachers and for classroom supplies, textbooks and technology.

Kevin Gallagher, the father of a Centerville second-grader, said he votes against most levies due to a lack of transparency. However, he said he has been pleased with the efforts of the district and is supportive of this levy.

“We moved here for the schools, and we’ll be in the schools another 10 years,” Gallagher said. “I’ve gotten a real sense from Day One that my son was being taken care of. I don’t want to see anything change.”

Washington Twp. resident Guy Geiger doesn’t want to see his taxes change.

“I’m not anti-education at all, but the biggest thing for me is being a senior citizen on a fixed income,” said Geiger, a former teacher who said he plans to vote against the levy. “If the state of Ohio is going to cut back on funding to education, then we ought to live within those boundaries. You don’t spend what you don’t have.”

Like many districts across the state, Centerville City Schools has weathered steep revenue losses due to cuts at the state and federal levels as well as local declines in property valuation and earnings.

Between the phasing out of tangible personal property tax reimbursements and the loss of basic state aid, the district is down $21.6 million since 2009. In fiscal year 2012 alone, the district lost $7 million.

To address these losses, the district has made more than $12 million in spending cuts in less than four years. The first were put into motion after Centerville’s November 2008 levy defeat.

“When you lose a levy like that, you lose that money,” said Tom Henderson, Centerville superintendent. “There were three phases of reductions for the next three years under then Superintendent Gary Smiga, and we followed that plan.”

Centerville passed a levy in May 2009 and eliminated 63 positions through layoffs, reorganization and attrition. Employees currently are in the second year of a two-year base pay freeze, and administrators are in the third year of that freeze.

The district also made reductions to transportation operations, equipment, professional development and overtime, and now self-funds its worker’s compensation and health insurance.

Henderson said the district has worked to keep cuts “as far away from the classroom as possible,” but the biggest program cut has been to the libraries, or Instructional Media Centers.

“We didn’t eliminate libraries in our schools, but we redeployed 11 of our 13 certified librarians who also are certified to teach,” Henderson said. “We kept two licensed librarians, one for the elementaries and one for the high school and middle schools, and our IMCs are now staffed with paraprofessionals.”

Gallagher said he wants the district to retain its academic programs and its educational standards.

According to the Ohio Department of Education, for 2011-12 Centerville earned the second highest performance index in Montgomery County at 106, behind Oakwood City Schools’ 109.8. It has earned the highest rating of “Excellent with Distinction” for the four of the last five years, and has been rated at least “Excellent” for 13 straight years.

Geiger said that Centerville, the Dayton area’s largest suburban school district with more than 8,000 students, earned its latest top report card rating from the state after millions of dollars in cuts were made.

For fiscal year 2011, Centerville’s average classroom teachers’ salary was $63,532, which was higher than the state ($57,904) and local averages ($57,136). The district’s administrators’ average salary was $77,614 for that same year, which was comparable to the state average ($76,037) and lower than the Dayton-area average ($83,097).

ODE data shows that Centerville, which does not employ assistant principals, has the lowest percentage of budget spent on administration in the area and the second lowest in the state.

In its most recent five-year forecast, submitted to the ODE this month, Centerville City Schools reported spending $81.2 million in fiscal year 2011 and $83.8 million for FY 2012, and expected to spend $86.8 million in FY 2013.

“We have budgeted a 10 percent increase each year for the life of this forecast for health insurance costs,” said Mitch Biederman, Centerville treasurer. “That’s a conservative estimate, and we don’t expect to spend that much now that we are self-funded.”

Biederman said expenses are expected to increase due to inflationary items, such as utilities and fuel costs, as well as step increases. The increase in the General Fund also includes expenses that previously had been paid for by federal funds that no longer exist.

Biederman said he recently was notified of a $1 million refund awarded to Miami Valley Hospital South for tax exempt public purpose by the Ohio Division Department of Taxation, dating back to 2007, which is a reduction to the current 2013 real estate collection to the district.

“That’s another loss,” he said.

Gallagher said he understands the reticence of some residents, such as Geiger, to vote for this levy.

“The ones on a fixed income, I completely get,” Gallagher said. “For the people with kids in the schools, I think the payoff comes in the value that the schools provide.”