Trending
BELPRE -- The Belpre City Schools Board of Education will be seeking a bond levy in 2022 to consolidate its facilities onto one campus under a proposed K-12 building.
At its regular monthly meeting Monday evening, the school board voted unanimously to approve a resolution setting the millage that will be forwarded to the Washington County Board of Elections for placement on the May primary ballot in Belpre.
At a special meeting in November, the board approved a resolution requesting a special needs approval for the proposed K-12 building and a resolution of urgent necessity for the proposed building.
The proposed levy would involve $40 million over a 37-year period at 3.18 percent interest as the local match toward a $62 million total cost. The remaining $22 million would come from the state Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.
The November resolutions were sent to the county auditor's office to determine the millage that will be used in the levy request.
District Treasurer Lance Erlwein said the levy will be for 8.1 mills with another 0.5 mills required under state law for maintenance costs, for a total of 8.6 mills. That would mean $300 for every $100,000 valuation in the district. Those 65 and over, low income and/or disabled would pay $225 per $100,000 valuation under the homestead exemption, Erlwein said.
From now until the primary, Erlwein said the Belpre school district will be preparing information on all aspects of the project and working to get that out to the voters.
In other action business, the board approved a motion to transfer $2.5 million from the general fund to a Permanent Improvement Fund. Erlwein said the Belpre district has never previously had a Permanent Improvement Fund in its budget, although most surrounding districts and throughout the state have done so previously.
The board set its first meeting of 2022 for 5 p.m. Jan. 10 with an organizational meeting followed by the regular business meeting. Fred Meredith was appointed president pro-tem for the organizational meeting.
The board also approved its annual membership in the Ohio School Boards Association.
Wayne Towner can be reached at wtowner@newsandsentinel.com