Pass levy to help Lorain Schools

Lorain Schools has a chance finally to get out from under the thumb of the state, but that will be far harder to accomplish if the district is making cuts to avoid a $13 million budget shortfall. Without an influx of money, that's exactly what the district's five-year forecast projected will happen by 2023. The district could then fall into fiscal emergency, allowing the state to seize control of its finances. That's something no one should want. To deal with those budget woes, Lorain Schools is asking voters to approve a 6.8-mill levy, identified on the ballot as Issue 37, that would generate a little more than $4.1 million annually. That money would help shore up the district's roughly $135 million annual budget, CEO Jeff Graham told us this week. It's not an unreasonable ask, because this is the first time the district has sought new money in nearly 10 years. "Things cost more than they did nine, 10 years ago," Graham said. It's important to remember that under the rules governing the roughly $60 million Lorain Schools received as part of a federal COVID relief package, only about $14 million can go into the general fund. That's one-time money which isn't enough to plug the budget hole. District enrollment is also surging. Graham told us that attendance had dropped from around 6,800 students to 5,600 in recent years. Now the district has approximately 6,000 students. The returning students bring with them state funding, but even that's not enough, Graham said, especially because the district is busy implementing a plan that school officials believe will help it finally escape state oversight of its academics. State control, which began in 2017, proved to be a disaster. Earlier this year, Ohio lawmakers gave Lorain, along with districts in East Cleveland and Youngstown, which also had fallen under state control, a path to retake local control. Lorain's escape plan calls for improving wraparound services and setting benchmarks, including for graduation and chronic absenteeism rates. Once the state approves the goals the district sets, it must meet them between 2022 and 2025. A budget crisis would needlessly complicate those efforts. "We can't cut our way out," Graham said. If Issue 37 doesn't pass, he warned, it would be impossible to avoid serious cuts to programs. "We have about a year to get stuff done before the wheels really come off, but we'd have to make cuts this school year," he said. The levy proceeds would help the district maintain programs and services, although Graham acknowledged that they alone wouldn't be enough to overcome entirely the projected shortfall. He said the district will have to streamline some services to save money. That will require cuts, but not nearly what would be necessary were the levy to fail. If that does happen, Graham said, the school board could try for another levy next year, but he warned that it would probably have to be bigger because the district would miss out on a year of revenue from Issue 37. Graham told us Issue 37 was sized to be "respectful of our taxpayers." The owner of a home valued at $100,000 would pay an additional $238 per year. No doubt that will strike some as expensive, but the cost of rejecting the levy, including lost services and the risk of endangering the district's chances of escaping state meddling, would be far higher. The best way to avoid those calamities is to pass Issue 37.