ASHLAND — Voters in most of Ashland County and in the West Holmes Local School district are going to be asked this fall to approve a levy to pay for a $44 million major renovation plan for the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center.
The Career Center Board of Education voted unanimously at a special meeting July 29 to ask the Boards of Election in the two counties to put a continuing 1.1 mill permanent improvement levy on the November ballot that will pay for the local share of the costs, which are estimated at $34 million.
The Career Center board began in 2019 to develop a master renovation plan for the 48-year-old building after the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission put the school at the top of the list of career technical schools eligible for state funds for facility upgrades.
The plan developed by SHP of Columbus includes clustering major programs with outside access, clustering academic programs with more flexible class space, and renovating the Ashland County Service Center Building next door to accommodate adult education programs and administrative functions if the levy is passed.
Funds generated by the levy will be used over 30 years to pay for the local share of the cost to renovate the current Career Center building and all of the cost to renovate the service center. The state has agreed to cover $10.9 million of the school renovation cost.
Levy dollars also will be used to pay half of the estimated $525,000 the state will require the board to set aside annually for 23 years for maintenance on the renovated school building.
The other half will come out of the $600,000 that is raised annually by the school’s current permanent improvement levy.
If the new levy is approved, it will cost $38.50 per year – or about $3.20 per month – for the owner of a home valued at $100,000 for tax purposes.
The Career Center Board also approved a separate resolution of intent that said if the entire 1.1 mills are not needed for debt service on the project and OFCC maintenance requirements, the board intends to ask the county auditor to reduce the millage accordingly.
Treasurer Julie Smith called the resolution a “good faith” action that is being taken because of the uncertainty over the tax valuation of property and facilities owned by the Rover Pipeline.
Rover has appealed a decision by the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals to allow full value for tax purposes on company facilities, which include pipeline and a pressure station that are in the Career Center district. Smith told the board the appeal hearing has been delayed until at least May of 2022 and that it could be several years before officials know what the outcome will be.
“It also will be a few years before we know what our maintenance requirements will be because it’s going to be based on the value of our facilities when construction is complete,” Smith said. “We just have a lot of variables going into it and we just want to be on the safe side as far as the revenues we’re requesting.”
Smith also pointed out that while permanent improvement levies generally are for five or 10 years, state law requires them to be continuing when debt is involved.
On a separate issue, Superintendent Rod Cheyney told the board that officials probably will not know how state funding will turn out for the Career Center until the school receives the first payment under the new school funding formula that recently was passed by the Ohio Legislature.
He indicated that the only thing for certain is that funding will be based on a “head count” of the students attending classes.
“They’re going to figure it out on an average for the last three years — what our current enrollment is, what last year’s was and the year before — for the initial payment,” Cheyney said.
The Career Center Board of Education also voted to hire Paul Aleka Liu as the school’s new Auto Technology instructor on a one-year limited probationary contract for the 2021-2022 contract year. Cheyney said Liu currently lives in Utah and is looking to be closer to family members who live in Solon.
“We kept putting things out and went with ZipRecruiter and he applied,” Cheyney said. “He’s originally from Samoa, has 10 years of experience, ASE master certification, and a bachelor’s degree in advanced vehicle systems and has done an internship with the Ford Motor Company.”
In other business, the Career Center Board of Education:
· Granted an attendance incentive to Adult Education administrative assistant Ruth Zakutni.
· Held an executive session to review and discuss negotiations with the Ashland Vocational Teachers’ Association and to discuss personnel matters. No action was taken after the executive session.
