JEROMESVILLE — Local voters chose not to renew a 10-year 1.25% income tax levy for Hillsdale Local Schools by a slim margin on Tuesday.
Totals show 1,346 voted for the levy and 1,405 voted against it, according to unofficial vote tallies from the Ashland and Wayne County boards of election.
Official vote totals will not be announced until all of Ohio’s absentee ballots, which may come in up to 10 days after the election, are counted.
Hillsdale supt. Steve Dickerson, who recently advocated for the levy at a candidates event, said he was disappointed with the results.
“We have work to do going forward selling the value of an education at Hillsdale, and also the value that they’re getting with a new facility for no additional dollars,” Dickerson said.
Hillsdale will move forward “cautiously” over the next year by slowing down the expansion of new programs while the district tries to get the levy renewed.
“We don’t want to do things and then because it doesn’t pass next November then all of a sudden we have to take things away,” Dickerson said.
Hillsdale has to try again next year to maintain the status quo of education at the district, he added. The school board could try to renew the levy again as early as May.
Dickerson speculated that the levy failed because voters can control the levy while they can not control the country’s economic woes.
“If you gotta choose from putting food on the table and paying taxes, I understand it, I do,” he said.
