Issue 18: Clearview Schools put renewal levy to voters

SHEFFIELD TWP. — Clearview Schools hopes voters back a 10-year renewal levy this spring. Voters in the district will see a 10-year, 2.52-mill emergency levy up for renewal this spring. The levy generates $352,690 each year and costs the owner of a $100,000 home $88 per year. If passed, the first tax year the renewal will go into effect is 2027. The current levy expires at the end of 2026. Clearview Schools, which includes portions of Lorain, plus Sheffield and Elyria townships, has about 1,400 students in its three buildings. The levy before voters in May will not fix the $2 million deficit the district faces in the 2026-27 school year, but without its funding that deficit could come sooner, school officials warned. Superintendent Jerome Davis said the renewal maintains funds the district already has and losing almost $353,000 would "only put us more into (a deficit)." "It's kind of crucial we get this one to pass," he said. Clearview Schools tried in 2021 and 2022 to pass a renewal of a $262,000 levy. It failed three times. Davis said the upgrades to the schools' baseball, softball and football field, as well as the new wellness center, may have put a "sour taste" in some voters' mouths three years ago. "This money doesn't go toward that," he said. Treasurer Mary Ann Nowak said every time the district loses revenue, it impacts its bottom line. "We're under contract," she said. "We have employment contracts we have to adhere to, operational contracts, purchased services, heat, light and power, insurance — all of those things go up every year … If your expenses increase every year, but your revenue is typically flat and you lose part of that revenue, that just exacerbates the negative impact on the financial picture." She, like Davis, reiterated that the renewal is not a tax increase. The amount the emergency levy brings in is fixed, she said, regardless of how their property values may have changed since the last time the issue went before voters. The levy funnels into the district's $19 million in general fund revenue each year, alongside other tax levies and state funding. The "emergency" namesake of the levy is based on the type of levy it was when first passed, Nowak said, not that the need for the money was temporary. Clearview will receive almost $234,000 in extra funding from an increase in residential property values and another $439,000 bump from the 20-mill floor, the minimum millage state law requires schools receive from property taxes. That additional money will not close the district's estimated $2 million budget gap that saw Clearview Schools Board of Education members approve a plan submitted to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to remedy that deficit through cuts in spending, including potential layoffs. Nowak said if this renewal levy fails like the last one did, she and the superintendent would again have to review the district's spending and manage any deficit spending before it triggers another ODEW-required plan. Davis stressed Clearview Schools is keeping its fingers crossed that its community is supportive this spring, as he and other educators do not know what may happen due to cuts to the federal Department of Education. "This is what people are already doing," he said of the renewal. "It would be very helpful to the future of Clearview Schools (for this to pass). In 10 years our kids in kindergarten are going to be in high school — this is just going to benefit them over the next 10 years."