C’view board addresses levy concerns

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

CONVOY — A large group of residents from the Crestview Local School District showed up at Thursday’s school board meeting looking for reasons to either vote for … or against … an upcoming proposal to make the district’s 5-mill operating levy a continuing levy. They received several reasons to approve the levy from school officials, as well as Van Wert County Auditor Nancy Dixon and her staff.

Approximately 100 district residents attended the meeting, which was moved to the Crestview High School gymnasium to accommodate the large crowd, with several asking questions concerning the levy.

The main reason for making the levy a continuing one is to forego the expense of having to place the levy on the ballot every five years, said Crestview Treasurer Ashley Whetsel, who noted the levy has been on the ballot since 1988.

Some district residents were also asking if the operating levy was still needed, because of the district’s positive financial situation.

Because of recent increases in revenue in the district, including more tax money from the Robert P. Mone Power Plant and PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) money from wind turbines located in the district, Crestview officials have already decided not to collect taxes from an emergency levy still on the books.

However, school officials and Dixon noted that it is, coincidentally, the district’s positive financial situation that makes it important that the levy be maintained.

It’s a “Catch-22” situation that faces the district.

Because of Crestview’s low indebtedness — a situation shared by the Van Wert and Lincolnview districts — the district’s millage has fallen to the 20-mill threshold all Ohio school districts must maintain. Whetsel explained that, even if the operating levy would be defeated in November, individual and farm taxpayers would still continue to pay the same amount as they do currently.

The only taxpayers who would pay less would be Class II taxpayers, which includes commercial entities and utilities, such as American Electric Power (AEP) and the power plant.

“The Class I property taxes, which would be agriculture and residential property, won’t see a change in their tax bill,” Whetsel noted, adding that the main beneficiary would be the power plant, which currently pays approximately $175,000 in Class II property taxes a year.

In addition, passing the levy, which has already been on the books for 27 years, as a continuing issue would mean no new taxes for Crestview residents, but would also negate the need to pay the cost of placing the issue on the ballot every five years.

Moreover, defeating the issue could cause additional problems for district taxpayers down the road, the district treasurer noted. Whetsel said that, if the levy was defeated and Crestview experienced a loss of revenues in the future that would force the district to put a new 5-mill levy on the ballot, the new levy would be collected at the full 5 mills, rather than the lower “effective millage” rate now being collected.

Because of legislation passed in the 1970s — House Bill 920 — Ohio school districts can only collect, with some exceptions, the amount of money a levy generates when first passed. That means that, as district valuation increases, the effective millage of a levy decreases to maintain the original dollar amount of the tax issue.

Later in the meeting, the Crestview board approved a resolution of necessity to place the operating levy on the ballot.

Also Thursday, the board approved a new contract for the Crestview Educators Association, although Superintendent Mike Estes said some language of the contract also needs to be approved before the new pact goes into effect.

In personnel matters, the board accepted the resignation of band director and instrumental music instructor Joshua Thomas after seven years in the district, while hiring Timothy Hurst as a high school language arts teacher, Elizabeth Cunningham, Amy Hyitt, Heather McClure and Candace Sites as elementary paraprofessionals and Eliza Lichtensteiger as a middle school paraprofessional.

Bud Walls was also hired as a temporary summer maintenance worker, and retired district treasurer Laura Metzger was approved as a substitute assistant treasurer.

The board also heard a presentation on Mount Vernon, former U.S. president George Washington’s home, by James Lautzenheiser, middle school social studies teacher, and students Ethan Greulach, Colton Lautzenheiser and Olivia Skelton.

The group also presented a picture of Mount Vernon donated by retired local attorney Donald Johnson and a copy of a famous photo of Washington painted by American artist Rembrandt Peale.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Crestview Local Board of Education will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, July 16, in the district boardroom.