The results were cheered by more than 50 supporters who enjoyed drinks and finger food at a support party Tuesday night in Sinclair’s Building 12 in downtown Dayton.
“This is further evidence that Sinclair is highly valued by the community. It plays a significant role in educating our young people and training our workforce. That appreciation is reflected by the victory tonight,” said Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering.
The new levy, which is expected to raise about $8.5 million per year, will be used to improve degree programs for in-demand fields, including health care and manufacturing.
“The passage of this levy is a tremendous boost for Sinclair as we move forward in our shovel-ready strategies for healthcare, manufacturing and IT,” said Sinclair president Steven Johnson.
“We are great partners with Montgomery County. We’ve been here for 128 years, and I think we’ve proven that we are good stewards of the public resources, and we are going to continue to be good stewards of public resources through this levy.”
An owner of a $100,000 home in Montgomery County can expect to pay $35 a year toward the levy, which was the only countywide measure on the ballot. That’s in addition to the $98 those homeowners already pay for Sinclair’s 3.2-mill levy, which passed in 2008.
Johnson said upgrades that will be made as a result of the new levy will help with the region’s “skills gap.”
“Manufacturers’ No. 1 concern is not being able to find enough employees with the right skill set. Passage of this levy will enable Sinclair to expand their manufacturing education and training programs, which will produce more qualified workers for the 2,400-plus manufacturing employers in the Dayton region,” said Angelia Erbaugh, president of the Dayton Region Manufacturers Association.
Erbaugh points out that most cities don’t have a community college like Sinclair.
“Sinclair is gem, it does a great job with everything it does,” she said. “We are fortunate to have them. We assume every community has a community college like Sinclair, but that’s not true. I’ve seen so many other manufacturing centers that do not have community colleges like Sinclair, which offers many manufacturing programs.”
The college also plans to use some of the new money to build a health center, which would house its nearly 40 health science programs and be equipped with the “latest” simulation labs and clinics.
Johnson said the levy’s biggest challenge wasn’t finding support, instead it was the predicted low turnout. Yet weather may have given turnout a boost.
“The weather was phenomenal. During my 30-some years of voting across the various places I’ve resided in America, I have never experienced a more glorious, perfect day for voting,” Johnson said. “From sunrise to sunset, the best day we could imagine.”
Citizens for Sinclair — the group that pushed Issue 13 — was out in full force over the last several weeks and spent more than $450,000 during the most recent reporting period.
Sinclair passed its first levy in 1966, and has passed each renewal since.
The new levy will run for eight years. In 2017 or 2018, the college says it will move to renew its 2008 levy, and after that the college would have a levy on the ballot every five years.
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