Levy needed to continue quality education

The Kenston Board of Education has placed a 4.7 mill combination levy on the May 5th ballot.  The levy's two parts include a 4.0 mill operating levy to pay for daily operating expenditures and a .7 mill bond issue to pay for capital improvements.  The 4.7 mill levy will cost about $12 a month per $100,000 of home value.

Voters last passed an operating levy in 2005.  In surrounding districts levies typically last three to five years. At Kenston, our levy has been stretched 10 years through careful analysis of internal operations, program reductions and reorganization. Kenston has also cut $13 million dollars from its budget.  While the budget cuts help, they do not eliminate the need for us to ask residents for additional funds to continue educational programing and maintaining buildings. 

The majority of funds from the levy support classroom instruction and student support - teachers, technology, textbooks and transportation.  A bond issue (.7 mill) will fund building and facility improvements.  Bond funds will be used to replace heating systems, roofs, kitchen equipment and parking lots that have reached the end of their useful life.  Other expenditures will address shortfalls in our educational programming and student/community safety. 

Our students' safety is paramount.  It starts with getting children to school. The National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. Department of Transportation and other authorities agree that school buses are the safest form of transportation for getting children to and from school.  Kenston has 34 school buses and six vans that transport students daily.  The average age of a school bus in our fleet is 16 years.  The Transportation Garage is 46 years old and was built when the district was transporting only half the students we do today.  In order to care for the fleet additional bays are needed for maintenance and washing.

Computers are the pen and pencil and even the library of yesterday.  Students today live in a digital world and are expected to use technology in every aspect of their lives.  Kenston needs to provide the tools our students require in a rapidly changing world to not only learn but apply their knowledge.  We can no longer take students to the "computer lab" to work on a project.  Technology needs to be integrated into classroom lessons.  This is difficult when many classrooms do not have access to basic WIFI.

The community generously funded the turf field at no cost to taxpayers.  From varsity athletic events to Kenston Community Education youth sports, the stadium hosted over 1,400 events in 2014. It is Kenston's responsibility to provide bleachers for our residents and visitors, replace failing lighting and maintain the restroom facilities that are attached to the Transportation Department.

View projects and their estimated costs.