Voters approved Issue 51, a 9.9 mill operating levy that will fund day-to-day operations of district schools.
The issue earned 66.5 percent of votes yesterday; 5,909 votes were cast in favor of it.
“The 9.9 mill levy will cost someone who owns a home worth $100,000 an additional $347 per year; and if their house is worth $200,000, it will be $694 per year and so on,” Donté Hayes, district treasurer, said.
The district hasn’t asked for a full operating levy since 2014. This operating levy will pay for staff, activities and materials used for daily activities such as Chromebooks and textbooks.
According to Stand Up For Shaker Schools, a campaign that was organized to inform the community about the levy, the measure would “fund staff salaries, classroom materials, programming, utilities and transportation.”
Caitlin Johnson, a co-chairwoman of the Stand Up For Shaker Schools committee, said she is relieved the levy was approved. “My whole job was to try and get this levy to pass. So I’m just happy that it’s approved. I’m very, very, very happy,” she said.
Now that the Issue 51 campaign is over, Johnson said that she has more time on her hands, but plans to stay involved. “I’m going to relax. I mean, I still do my job, but I’ll have more time with my family and for being on the PTO. I’ll be around to help out the community. I’m sure I’ll be engaged in stuff going forward,” she said.
Although the levy has passed, Johnson said there are still financial obstacles the district will have to overcome. “We got this levy passed to try to maintain the budget that the district has. But if you take a look at the Five Year Forecast, it’s still going to be tight,” she said.
While the district will be gaining $12.5 million through the funds generated by the levy, Hayes said the district still has a lot of work to do. “The district was asked to save $1 million a year, for five years. But, that $1 million is also being reduced in years two through five as well. So it equates to approximately $15 million being saved. We already identified $2.5 million for this year,” he said.
Hayes said the new tax rate will start next year. “Collection will start January 2026. Tax collections happen on the calendar year basis, which is January to December, while our school districts are on fiscal year calendars, which are from July to June,” he said.
Johnson said that the district will also face challenges at the federal level. “The Trump administration is basically gutting the Department of Education. The lawmakers in the state of Ohio are doing everything they can to undermine public schools. They passed a whole bunch of laws that are going to make it harder for schools,” she said, referencing House Bill 186 and House Bill 335.
According to an Oct. 22 Cleveland.com article, HB 186 “changes how school property taxes adjust when home values go up,” ultimately limiting school district property tax increases to the rate of inflation. For example, Ohio law sets a minimum tax rate, or floor, that school districts must collect. “When a district hits the floor and home values keep climbing, tax bills can jump even though voters never approved a higher levy. HB 186 would close that loophole by limiting those increases to the rate of inflation,” according to the Cleveland.com story.
According to the Ohio Association of School Business Officials, HB 335 “eliminates authority for school districts to levy unvoted property tax millage and will cause a $1.991 billion loss by school districts annually.”
Despite these new worries, Johnson said she is thankful that passing the levy is no longer a concern. “Thank goodness we don’t have to worry about this levy, and the community did its part here. Because if this levy hadn’t passed, it would make all those other problems and challenges we have to face coming from Columbus and D.C. a lot harder,” she said.
Johnson said that she is glad the community united to pass Issue 51. “I’m happy that it passed by the margin that it did,” she said.
“It has its challenges — all communities do — but at the end of the day,” said Johnson, “I feel like we come together and we try to do what’s right.”
