Huber Heights City Schools
Levy details: A 5.95-mill continuous operating levy would generate nearly $4 million annually and cost an owner of a $100,000 home an additional $17.35 a month.
Year-end enrollment: 6,071
State report card indicators met for 2012-13: 15 of 24.
Previous state report card ratings: Effective for 2011-12, 2010-11, 2009-10, 2008-09, 2007-08, 2006-07.
Administrators’ average salary: $86,073 (State average: $76,654)
Classroom teachers’ average salary: $63,541 (State average: $58,120)
Expenditure per pupil: $10,936 (State average: $10,597)
Revenue per pupil: $10,079 (State average: $10,851)
Source: Ohio Department of Education, fiscal year 2012
In-DEPTH SCHOOL LEVY COVERAGE
The November ballot is packed with school levies, and our team is looking into the finances of our local districts and getting you the information you need to make an informed choice.
Each day this week, we will focus on a different school with a levy on the ballot.
Sunday: Centerville Schools, read that story and other past election coverage at www.mydaytondailynews.com/election2013.
Today: Huber Heights Schools. Watch video of the Huber Heights superindentent discussing the levy at www.DaytonDailyNews.com
Tuesday: Lebanon Schools
Wednesday; Kettering Schools.
Thursday: Springboro Schools.
Friday: Beavercreek Schools.
Saturday: Oakwood Schools.
LIVE WEB CHAT TODAY
Join us from 1 to 2 p.m. today at DaytonDailyNews.com for a live web chat with Centerville Schools Superintendent Tom Henderson. He'll answer your questions about the district's levy on the November ballot.
WHIO REPORTS SPECIAL
Also, watch a special edition of WHIO Reports with Jim Otte and Terry Morris on Sunday, Oct. 20. Tune to Channel 7 at 11:30 a.m. for a conversation with school leaders from Huber Heights, Kettering and Springboro. Listen to the broadcast on radio at 95.7 FM and AM 1290 WHIO Sunday at 8:30 a.m.
LIVE CHAT WITH HUBER HEIGHTS SUPERINTENDENT
Join us from 1 to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, at DaytonDailyNews.com for a live web chat with Huber Heights Schools Superintendent Sue Gunnell. She'll answer your questions about the district's levy on the November ballot.
The Huber Heights school district is asking voters on Nov. 5 to approve a 5.95-mill continuous operating levy that would generate nearly $4 million annually and allow the district to restore $1.23 million in programs.
It's the third levy on the ballot in the last 12 months, the most recent a 5.95-mill that failed 60 to 40 percent in August — the fourth time in a row Huber Heights voters rejected the school district's request for new operating funds.
November’s levy, if it passes, would cost an owner of a $100,000 home an additional $17.35 a month. Tax collections for the levy would begin Jan. 1, 2014.
If the levy fails, Huber Heights will likely return to the ballot in May, Superintendent Sue Gunnell said.
“We continue to make sure we’re running as efficiently as possible and using our resources wisely,” Gunnell said. “But it’s very challenging to keep looking at the uphill battle when we know that people have kind of had it. It’s hard to keep going out there.”
If the Aug. 6 levy would have passed, it would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $15.18 a month. But because of changes in the state budget, taxpayers will pay 12.5 percent more for new and replacement levies approved, beginning in November.
Huber Heights voters last approved an operating levy in 2005. This is the 28th issue the school district has had on the ballot since Nov. 1996, and of the previous 27 — which also included renewal, replacement and bond issues — 14 of them passed.
“I’m tired of it and the taxpayers in the city are tired of it,” said Dan White, spokesman for Concerned Citizens for Huber Heights. “They keep kicking the can down the road. If they get this levy, they get to kick the can down the road for a year or 18 months. They’re holding the public hostage.”
The district has cut about $14.6 million during the last three years, and school officials said no additional cuts are planned, even if the levy fails. In June, the school board completed the implementation of $6.4 million in cuts that were approved in January.
“With the last round, where we actually cut so deep, there’s really nothing left to cut,” treasurer Ann Bernardo said.
If the levy passes, approximately $1.23 million in instructional programs — impacting all grade levels — would be restored either immediately or in January. They are:
• Elementary: five teachers; five paraprofessionals; 2.5 custodians; and the walk-zone radius would return to one mile immediately. It’s currently 1.5 miles for elementary students.
• Junior high: one mathematics teacher; one art teacher; one paraprofessional; and maintain one school resource officer.
• High school: one mathematics teacher; one paraprofessional; ½ librarian/media specialist; maintain two Air Force ROTC instructors; and maintain one school resource officer.
• District: attendance officer and two speech therapists.
“We’re crossing our fingers that this gets passed,” Bernardo said. “We know our teachers are stretched and we want to bring back staff to help alleviate the stress.”
The district has an annual budget of $58.4 million, with 80 percent going toward salaries and benefits, Bernardo said. There are 586 employees total in the district.
The school board approved in June two-year contracts with the Huber Heights Education Association (certified and classified staff) and the Dayton Public Service Union that will save the district more than $1.8 million.
“The perception is that we’re always asking for money, which in a sense is accurate only because we haven’t had a levy pass in several years,” said Kelly Bledsoe, school board president. “The cost of running a school district is an expensive proposition.”
White, who had two children graduate from Huber Heights, said the district needs to look at cutting into that 80 percent, rather than the 20 percent that impacts busing, programs and extracurriculars.
“They’re not digging too deep into that 80 percent,” White said. “(The $1.8 million in concessions) is nothing compared to what people in the city are taking in fuel, food, health care, child care.”
In late July, the school board voted to reduce pay-to-play fees from $750 to $428 per student per sport — with a $1,200 family cap — and re-implement a payment plan.
Huber Heights is projected to receive an additional $1.6 million this school year and an additional $2.85 million next year from the state.
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