There will be 60 staff positions eliminated in the Perrysburg School District if the Nov. 5 operation levy fails, the schools superintendent said Tuesday.

Superintendent Tom Hosler laid out a reduction plan that also cuts clubs, field trips, freshman sports, and all gifted programs at a special board of education meeting in the Commodore Building. 

“It would begin to tear apart the fabric of what makes Perrysburg, Perrysburg,” Mr. Hosler said in an earlier interview Tuesday. “People may view this as a threat. We have 17 percent of our revenue that is at stake and things will be different.”

Voters will decide an eight-year incremental levy to bring in a fixed sum of $13.5 million annually, with $2 million additional each year. This levy would make up for an incremental operating levy that brings in $13.5 million annually, or about 17 percent of the district’s annual budget, that expires Dec. 31.

If passed, it will cost the owner of a $200,000 home an additional $8.40 per month each year.

If the Nov. 5 levy fails, the plan is to take $7.5 million from reserves and make $6 million in reductions to fill the $13.5 million hole, Mr. Hosler said. If an operational levy isn’t passed in 2025, another $7.5 million in reductions will be made, he said.

Mr. Hosler spoke for almost 90 minutes. There were about 15 people in the audience and public comment was not permitted.

At the end of the two-hour meeting, the board approved the resolution making the cuts, 4-1.

Mr. Hosler said 84 percent of the Perrysburg budget is people. The district has 700 employees. For the 2024-25, the district has added 56 teaching and specialist positions and three administrative positions. Of the new teaching positions, 60 percent, or 17 of the 42, are in special education. 

The 60 eliminated positions break down to three administrative, 26 teacher/certified, three exempt, 23 classified, three paraprofessionals, and two contracted.

The full presentation is on the district’s website. Some of the proposed cuts and other plans, if the levy fails:

● Hiring freeze for 2025-26. No new teachers to keep pace with student growth means larger class sizes and caseloads (the district has averaged 11 new teachers over the last five years).

● Salary freezes for administrators and exempted staff for 2025-26.

● The extracurricular participation fee will increase to $150 per student, $300 max per student, and $450 max per family. The current fee is $75 per student, $150 max per student, and $225 max per family; 1,198 students paid this fee the last school year.

● For transportation, the walk radius for high school students will increase to 2 miles. There will be reduced busing for athletics with drop off only for local schools, drop off at event and students find own transportation back to Perrysburg.

● There will be no field trips district wide.

● All freshman sports will be eliminated, along with 15 assistant coaches.

● Twenty clubs and activities will be cut, including drama and dance. Band, orchestra and vocal music will not be offered at the junior high and Hull Prairie Intermediate, along with a dozen other activities and clubs, like yearbook, pep band, student council, and running club.

● In the technology department, there will be a software reduction, which will mean slower response times for student and staff device repairs and support.

● In transportation, contracted substitutes would be cut. St. Rose students will be absorbed into public school routes.

● The new teacher mentor program will be cut, along with its coordinator. 

● In pupil services, primary and secondary academic assessors will be eliminated along with the school psychologist’s extended days. The Perrysburg Heights Community Center Reading Program will be cut, along with a preferred provider program, limiting access to outside mental health support for students. 

● Substitute custodians, when custodians are off, will be cut, resulting in bare minimum cleaning or “trash and dash.”

“It’s important that the community understand what will happen,” Mr. Hosler said. “One thing that we don’t want to happen is somebody vote and then later learn these are the things that will change in the district.

“It’s not something we enjoy doing, but the fact of the matter is in this case, if the levy fails, we will not collect $13.8 million. So how do we fill that hole next year?” Mr. Hosler said.

Perrysburg Stands Up is opposed to the levy.

“The school board chose to put the most costly and longest lasting levy on the ballot,” said spokesman Maria Ermie. “To take away a citizen’s voice for eight years and provide an open checkbook for spending would be irresponsible to our school district.”

Mr. Hosler noted that 141 school districts have issues on the ballot Nov. 5 in Ohio. With the way House Bill 920 works, schools must go to voters to get additional funds, he said.

Since Nov. 7, 2023, Perrysburg school voters have turned down two tax issues that would have built a new elementary school and paid for renovations in other schools. A 2.65-mill, 36-year bond levy and an 0.85-mill continuing levy that would have funded $87 million in improvements failed by 58 percent on March 19. On Nov. 7, 56 percent of voters rejected a $140 million bond issue.

The building money requests were due to a pulsing population in the district. There are 232 new student enrollments in the school district this year; 635 have been added in the last five years.

The Nov. 5 issue is an operating levy, Mr. Hosler said, and will not fund new buildings. Also, as the community grows, less millage is needed to collect the dollar amount set by the ballot.

Board member Sue Larimer said these reductions will eventually show negatively on the state report card.

“That’s the beginning of the decay and that’s not what we’re about,” she said. “The ripple effect is mind boggling when you look at this report.”

The board should be careful to not alienate voters and parents with a possible threat, said board member Laura Meinke. She voted against putting the Nov. 5 levy on the ballot, and against the Tuesday resolution to authorize the cuts if the tax request fails.

“This is a start,” Ms. Meinke said, adding that it should be a fluid contingency plan. “There should be nothing left off the table.”

Board member Lori Reffert said the process was sobering. 

“This isn’t a threat. This is reality,” she said. “This is going to be painful if it doesn’t pass.”

Board President Eric Benington said he wanted to serve to make the district better. “I didn’t come in to walk it backward, to have it be less excellent,” he said. “These are people and these are people who care very, very much and work hard for the community.

“I don’t like it, but this is the job,” Mr. Benington said.

First Published October 9, 2024, 1:07 a.m.