PARKERSBURG - This November Wood County Schools will ask area voters to renew the district's $16.3 million continuing levy.
The Wood County Board of Education Tuesday evening unanimously voted to put the levy on the November election ballot.
The renewal would be for a five-year period beginning in 2009 and running through 2014. The levy was renewed in 2004. Superintendent Bill Niday said at a recent board meeting putting the levy on the Nov. 4 ballot would save the district and taxpayers about $100,000 in special election costs.
Only one area of the $16.3 million operating levy has changed from the previous version. Officials added $434,630 in funding for the Parkersburg & Wood County Public Library and Vienna Public Library, the cost of which is covered by growth in the levy and will not result in a higher rate for taxpayers, Niday said. The library dollars were added after changes in state law last year altered how public libraries can be funded through public school systems.
The board has asked former school board members Lori Williamson and Tim Amos to help get information to the public concerning the importance of the levy to Wood County Schools operation.
Niday called passage of the levy "vital" to the continued success of Wood County Schools. A large portion of the $16.3 million goes directly to salaries for teachers and support personnel without which the school system could not offer certain services, such as school nurses, literacy specialists and some tutoring programs.
