Voters in Swanton, Perkins school districts reject bond issue, levy
8/6/2013SWANTON -- Voters in two northwest Ohio school districts soundly defeated issues on the special election ballot today -- one a bond issue to leverage state money for a building project; another an additional levy for the emergency needs of the schools.
The bid by Swanton Local Schools, in Fulton and Lucas counties, for a 35-year, 3.9-mill bond issue to generate $13.5 million for construction and a 0.5-mill continuing maintenance levy failed, 1,624 to 994. That same proposal was defeated in May.
The defeat means Swanton will lose $11.5 million in state funding for the building project that the local levy was to have matched.
In Erie County's Perkins Local Schools district, voters turned down a 10-year, 6.73-mill levy by 2,482 to 2,142. Before the election, Perkins Superintendent Jim Gunner said he expected the Board of Education to move quickly to place another levy on the November ballot if today's question failed.