More online: Our coverage doesn't end here. Read past stories about the Beavercreek levy at MyDaytonDailyNews.com/election2013.
School officials and voters likely will know by this afternoon whether a five-year, 6.3 mill emergency school operating levy passed and whether there will be an automatic recount.
Results from the Nov. 5 election had the levy failing by 29 votes. However, 93 provisional and 24 late-arriving absentee ballots were not counted in Greene County, awaiting confirmation of the ballots’ legitimacy, said Llyn McCoy, Greene County Board of Elections deputy director.
The board met Monday and determined 84 of the provisionals and all of the absentees were valid. The board meets at 4 p.m. today to certify the county count. The final official won’t come until next week when the Montgomery County elections board counts the provisional ballots from two precincts there that are in the Beavercreek school district.
“They say they have only two provisional ballots, so we should have a clear idea Tuesday if there will be an automatic recount,” McCoy said.
State law requires a recount if the margin of difference is less than 1/2 of 1 percent of all those who voted on the issue. With 16,215 ballots on the issue, a difference of about 81 votes would trigger the recount. McCoy cautioned that it is possible that some of the provisional and absentee voters may have chosen to not to vote on the issue.
Once the Montgomery County votes are certified, Greene County will ask the Secretary of State to order a recount, a process that can take about 10 days, pushing the the final results into December.
The Montgomery County elections board said there is a slight possibility the Vandalia-Butler schools 6.99 mill operating levy, which appears to have passed by 58 votes, might need a recount when the provisionals are counted Monday.
If the Beavercreek levy is defeated, it would be the fifth consecutive defeat of new levy in the past 2 1/2 years. Voters have not approved new operating money for the district since 2003.
Levy opponents have pointed out the district has earned the top rating from the state for student performance for 14 consecutive years, despite the lack of new funding. They argued the district needed to live within its means.
Since 2009, the district has been covering its operating shortfall with its reserve funds. Those funds will be exhausted by the 2015-16 school year. The district has cut nearly $6 million in personnel cost over the past two years through staff attrition and retirement, and negotiated agreements to contain health care costs. Some programs also have been cut.
“I want this to pass. I want to see programs such as full-time kindergarten back,” said JoAnn Rigano, a retired teacher who was elected to the school board in the November election.
Board president Al Nels said Rigano and the other two newly elected board members — Denny Morrison and Krista Hunt — will be involved in any decisions the board needs to make because of the election results.
“We have to wait and see where we stand,” Nels said.
Superintendent Bill McGlothlin said administrators already have started looking for ways to reduce operational costs, about 15 percent of the district’s $69 million budget.
Even if the district were to get a levy passed next year, the schools would not see any new money until 2015.
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