In a few days the voters of Cleveland Heights and University Heights will choose whether to continue to fund our school district at its current levels through passage of an operating levy increase. Both a state performance audit and a citizen's committee have independently determined that present spending levels cannot be maintained without additional funding.
Part of the reason that Ohio schools regularly go back to the voters for more income is House Bill 920, which limits school property tax revenues to the amount collected in the first year of a levy. Even though taxed property increases in value over the years, the schools do not see an increase in funding. Although other taxing authorities see income growth because of inflationary increases in property, sales and income tax collection, the schools must return to the voters to cover inflationary costs increases in their budgets.
Technology impacts the school budget in many ways. It can both cause growth pressures and eventually cost savings. Often any cost savings are eaten up by increased expectations for the final product. It is interesting that the State Performance Audit that recommends many purported cost savings through cuts, contains mostly recommendations for cost increases in area of technology.
Technology in our district is funded from the general fund (mostly operating levy income), a capital improvements levy, state SchoolNET funds and a variety of grants. Even if the November 2nd school levy fails, the other funding sources will still be available to complete current technology plans. These funds often must be spent in specific ways and could not be diverted to offset the general fund budget deficit caused by a levy failure.
Communicating the facts to voters on a consistent basis can be very expensive because of paper based printing, mailing or media advertising costs. The web offers a new paradigm for mass communication of information. Suddenly, costs are not a significant limitation to distribution of extensive school data. Voters that want more information before making a decision will have information available to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Those without internet access can use public access in area libraries and schools. Although we may never convince the nay-sayers, many voters want to make an informed decision and are willing to support the schools once they have the facts.
This same public information is also available to school employees that will ultimately be affected by administrative and community decisions. Our district is one of 21 urban districts in Ohio that recently had a performance audit completed by State Auditor Petro's staff. You can read the State Performance Audit recommendations and the administrator's responses on HeightsNET. (www.chuh.org/audit/) This can help you understand the current thinking of district decision makers and the difficulties in juggling the competing needs of a large school system. Many choices are forced on the district by state and federal mandates that require local funding. Recent and historical budget information is available on school's levy page (www.chuh.org/Levy/) and the Citizens for Heights Schools levy page (www.chuh.net/pubed/levy/).
As employees that regularly deal with the voters, you can be instrumental in helping them make an informed decision on voting day.