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MARIETTA -- It's a tale of two school districts. Three, if you count Marietta.
In 2012 the voters of Beaver Local Schools in Lisbon approved a levy that allowed a $56 million building project to go ahead.
The district is slightly smaller than Marietta -- 1,815 students this year, compared to about 2,600 for Marietta City Schools -- but it also had old buildings in scattered locations, three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. Beaver Local is going into its fifth year of operating a single-location campus with three schools, as Marietta is proposing.
Superintendent Eric Lowe said the project delivered on the positive assumptions made during the planning process and levy campaign.
"Overall, it's been great," he said Thursday. "I'm very positive about the outcomes."
Lowe, who started with Beaver Local as a teacher 20 years ago, said there was some public resistance to the plan, with particular focus on elementary level students and schools.
"There were some people concerned about the interaction between the little folks and the older kids," he said. "And you lose your neighborhood elementary feel, I understand that. I taught fourth grade in a one-hallway school, I knew all the kids. But once you're here and experience the new school, you find that each grade band is like a unique school inside one building. Ours is built in pods, so for example the second grade is all one pod, and the only time they leave is for lunch, physical education, art or an activity like that. They all get to know each other."
Having the entire district on one campus has distinct advantages, he said.
"Our schools were very spread out, and now there's a lot more interaction among students, when we want it. We have high school kids working with elementary kids in learning projects, the kids see each other at events, we have all-school pep rallies," he said. "The benefits far outweigh anything that was lost. We've got high school students signing up to be teachers' helpers, kids are more supportive of each other, they'll stop at the fields and watch each other's games. There are a lot of added components you wouldn't realize until you see it in action."
Lowe said the single campus has given the district greater operating efficiency, both for maintenance and for education. No jobs were eliminated at the time of consolidation, he said, but some positions have been retired by attrition in the succeeding years.
Getting the bond passed was a long-term struggle, he said, with failed efforts going back a decade, including proposals to build a new high school. The bid to set up a new consolidated school finally passed.
"At that time, the elementary school had flooded because of a plumbing failure and was closed for renovations, in the middle school the main hallway was closed because of a leak in the roof. We were facing some real challenges," he said.
Being able to design the school from the ground up helped with traffic, he said.
"At the middle school, it was chaotic because we didn't have enough room for all the buses. Now, we have room for parents' vehicles and buses, using staggered dismissal times. There are built-in bays to help with the traffic flow," he said.
The new school, he said, built on a township road about a quarter mile from Ohio 7 just south of Williamsport, required some minor adjustments to the road.
"We did the traffic studies, widened the intersection and installed lights, put in a crosswalk," he said.
Lowe said it's important to communicate with voters in the levy process.
"You have to get out there and tell your story, you need the support of taxpayers, and a lot of them have preconceived opinions," he said. "You need to make sure they're fully in the loop."
River View Local School District also is similar to Marietta City Schools -- a rural district about halfway between Columbus and Canton, near Coshocton, it enrolls about 2,000 students and educates them in six schools. The buildings all are nearing a century in age, and unlike Beaver Local, it has no building project on the horizon.
Dan Hothem is president of the River View board of education and, like many of the district's residents, a farmer.
This year, one of the district's four elementary schools closed, with students being transferred to the remaining three. With shrinking enrollments, the district could no longer support the school.
The district has suffered economic blows in the past few years, Hothem said.
"We put a bond levy out three or four years ago, trying to get money to use OFCC (Ohio Facilities Construction Commission) money for one central elementary school, but that got defeated," he said.
In addition to being a difficult time for farmers, he said, the district is losing a coal-fired power plant that contributed significant revenue to the school district.
"That's going to be $2 million in operating money being lost," he said.
Not unlike Marietta, River View looks like a rich district on paper -- viewed from a strict perspective of property value -- in contradiction to the income level of its residents.
Marietta board vice president Russ Garrison pointed out at a recent levy committee public meeting that the Marietta district is ranked in the 71st percentile by the state education department for its property valuation base, but in the bottom quartile of Ohio districts for median family income. The department uses the tax base valuation rankings to determine state participation in building projects and operating costs, which puts districts like Marietta and River View at a substantial disadvantage.
"We would have gotten 19 percent from the state. We are considered a rich district because of our property values," Hothem said. The levy was defeated soundly, with 80 percent voting against it.
"At that time putting additional valuations on farmers was a difficult proposal, they weren't getting a lot of income them," he said. "Also, we're a large district. It would have involved transporting some elementary students further, and it's hard to fight against people wanting to keep their neighborhood schools."
One of those schools was lost in any case, with Union Elementary closing this year.
"When you're operating schools in these outlying areas, you can't balance class sizes, you spend additional money in teachers' salaries," Hothem said.
The district is hoping to pass an income tax levy this fall to prop up its operating budget, he said.
"If we'd passed that levy three or four years ago, we probably wouldn't need the income tax levy," he said. "It's the cost of upkeep on these older buildings."
Despite the aging facilities, he said, River View as a district has done fairly well on the state report card. The district was given a C by the state in 2018.
Hothem said the district will probably seek approval for a building project again sometime in the future. It's difficult to attract new people and business to the area, he said, although it's hard to tell whether people are put off by the schools or the general infrastructure, which doesn't include any four-lane roads. Neighboring Coshocton and Ridgewood school districts have newer buildings, he said.
"Most of our buildings are close to 100 years old, although they have newer additions," he said. "The maintenance and custodial staff keep them in as good a shape as they can, but they just look old … If you've got a levy, I'd say do all you can to get it passed," he said.
Michael Kelly can be contacted at mkelly@mariettatimes.com
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Districts Comparable to Marietta
Beaver Local Schools, Columbiana County
* Enrollment: 1,815
* Schools: K-12, single complex built after 2012 levy
River View Local Schools, Coshocton County
* Enrollment: 1,326
* Schools: Three elementary, one middle school, one high school, building ages nearing 100 years
Source: Ohio Department of Education, Beaver Local Schools, River View Local Schools