NORTHWOOD – May will be last chance for Northwood Schools to take advantage of state funding to help
build a new school.
On Wednesday at a special meeting, the school board voted to proceed with putting on the May ballot the
exact levy combination that failed by two votes in November.
If the issue does not pass in May, Northwood will go onto the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission
"lapsed" list for projects, and will lose the percentage of funding now being offered by OSFC
for the project.
School districts must raise their local share of the project budget within 13 months before the state
funding can be released. Districts that fail to acquire their funding in that period are considered
"lapsed" but can still participate in OSFC programs once they obtain local funding.
Superintendent Greg Clark said an August attempt this year is not an option, as it is beyond the 13 month
limit.
"This will be our last opportunity to secure this agreement with OSFC," he said Wednesday.
Under the current agreement, OSFC would pay 35 percent of the $33.02 million cost of the new preK-12
school, or $11.55 million. The district would need $21.46 million in tax dollars to build the school on
the Lemoyne Road campus.
The district will ask voters again in May to support a combined 0.25-percent earned income tax and a
4.9-mill property tax. The taxes will pay for a new 130,000-square-foot school.
"They overwhelmingly wanted us to do the same thing again," stated Clark about the results of a
community forum held in December.
Board members could not comment on what will be done differently with this campaign.
Clark said it is too early to get into campaign mode.
But "turnout it key," he stated.
Of the roughly 3,730 voters registered in the district, only 1,402 came out the vote in November.