June 30 Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education meeting
Covered by Documenter Kelly Messner (see her notes here).
A year after voters OK’d a renewal levy to continue funding Cuyahoga Falls City Schools, residents will see a new ask for operating expenses on the November ballot.
A five-year, 5.5-mill property tax levy would raise about $6.1 million to pay for salaries and building maintenance if approved by voters this fall. It would cost the owner of a home with an assessed value of $100,000 an additional $193 per year.
“I think it’s important to put this before the voters and see what they say,” Board President Anthony Gomez said during the meeting.
He also said at the June 24 board meeting that the board has begun working on a statement of facts that lists the cuts that would be made if the levy fails.
“If you look at the list and the things we’re considering, they’re not things that I think anyone wants,” he said. The statement is still being developed and will be released to the public at a later date, officials said.
Cuyahoga Falls City Schools will face a nearly $4 million budget shortfall in the 2028-29 school year, according to its most recent financial forecast. Prior to that, it is spending against its cash balance each year.
In May, voters across Ohio overwhelmingly rejected property and income tax hikes requested by local districts to fund K-12 public schools.
Only 24 of 66 local school district property and income tax levies passed, according to a count from the Ohio School Boards Association.
Tom Hosler, chief executive officer of the Ohio School Boards Association, noted in a statement that voters approved roughly three out of four renewal requests, which don’t raise residents’ tax rates.
In Summit County, school levies or tax increase requests failed in Barberton, Norton, Tallmadge and Twinsburg.
Cuyahoga Falls voters approved a slight property tax increase in May to support Cuyahoga Falls Library operations. The approved 2.2-mill property tax levy replaced an expiring 1.9-mill levy first passed in 2011. The new levy will raise about $2.4 million per year.
(Editor’s note: Signal Akron Education Reporter Carissa Woytach contributed to this report.)
