BOWLING GREEN — The fate of Bowling Green schools’ proposed construction program is at stake when district voters act next month on a 37-year, $71.9-million bond levy.

The proposal headlines the school-district tax proposals on the upcoming ballot that also include property-levy renewals in Toledo and Oregon and an income-tax reduction in the Evergreen district that straddles northern Lucas County and Fulton County.

In a letter to district residents, Superintendent of Schools Francis Scruci likened the situation to Bowling Green voters’ approvals during the 1950s and 1960s of building two elementary schools and a high school.

“Over the years these buildings have served our students, staff, and community well,” he wrote. “However, they are not capable of meeting today’s learning and instruction needs.”

The construction plan calls for renovating and expanding the high school, including construction of a new gymnasium and reconfiguring the school into departmental wings.

The district’s three elementary schools, meanwhile, are to be consolidated into one, which the superintendent said will create “equity of resources, opportunities, and class sizes while eliminating the labels on students associated by where they attend school.”

The current Crim Elementary School is to be renovated for use housing the district’s preschool program and its administrative offices.

The bond levy’s 6-mill rate would cost the owner of property appraised at $100,000 an annual $210 in taxes. One mill equals $1 of tax for each $1,000 of assessed property value.

Mr. Scruci said in an interview that the board developed the construction plan after extended consultations with the community, including meetings and surveys.

“The board concluded that this is the best project for our kids, our community, and the future of Bowling Green,” he said.

Evergreen Schools

The 0.25-percent income tax on the Evergreen ballot, meanwhile, is proposed to renew and reduce an 0.5-percent income tax district voters approved in early 2013.

An 0.25-percent income tax proposal had failed the previous November, and district officials explained when putting a larger tax on the March, 2013, ballot that financial conditions hadn’t changed but Evergreen had lost a year of needed revenue from the delay.

The current proposal would supersede that five-year tax’s fifth year and be in effect itself through 2022.

In Toledo, a 6.5-mill operating levy first approved in 2000 as a three-year measure and most recently renewed in 2013 yields about $13 million in annual revenue for the school district.

Its five-year renewal would continue to cost district property owners about $178 annually for each $100,000 in value.

Oregon Schools

The proposed renewal in Oregon, meanwhile, is a 2-mill tax for five years.

Elsewhere

Also up for renewal is a 1-mill levy in Rossford that is on the ballot for Rossford Schools, although the funds actually go to the Rossford Library District for its expenses.

New taxes on ballots elsewhere include an 0.5-mill, continuing levy for permanent improvements in the Erie-Huron-Ottawa Vocational Education district; an 0.5-mill, five-year levy for educational technology in the Genoa school district, and a 1 percent, five-year earned-income tax for current expenses in the Gibsonburg school district.

Contact David Patch at dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

First Published October 8, 2017, 5:05 a.m.