Rossford, Northwood levies fall; AW, Ottawa Hills pass

Bob Gyori, left, and Wayne Johnson sign people in to vote at the Rossford Board of Education's Bulldog Hall. Voters rejected a proposal for new school construction.

Voters in Rossford and Northwood narrowly defeated requests for money to replace their aging buildings and officials in the districts said nothing has changed with respect to their need for updated facilities.

Rossford Superintendent Dan Creps noted that his district’s request was defeated by 99 votes — 3.4 percent of the vote — a much better result than in 2010, when a similar proposal failed 65 percent to 35 percent. “I feel pretty good about the plan we put before the voters, and I would not say we need to toss out the plan,” he said.

Rossford school officials requested funding for the first phase of a $76 million renovation project in the form of a 37-year, 4.6-mill bond issue that would raise $32.2 million for the construction of two buildings to replace Indian Hills and Eagle Point Elementary schools.

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Under the plan, the new Indian Hills would have housed third through fifth grades, while prekindergarten through second grade would have been taught at the new Eagle Point.

Glenwood Elementary would have been decommissioned and and eventually demolished in phase two of the district’s upgrade.

Both new schools would have been built at the sites of the current elementary schools after the old buildings were demolished. Indian Hills dates to 1970, and Eagle Point to 1929. The new tax would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $161 annually.

In the Northwood district, voters were asked to adopt a combined continuing property tax/​earned income tax to pay for construction of a $33 million school for students in prekindergarten through 12th grades on the district’s campus on Lemoyne Road. The Ohio School Facilities Commission would absorb a third of the cost. The plan called for the southern portion of the high school, containing the gym and auditorium, to be preserved.

The funding request failed by a mere five votes. Superintendent Greg Clark said, “the need to address our facility issues hasn’t gone away.”

The Northwood district’s requested property tax was 4.9 mills; the proposed earned income tax, 0.25 percent. The owner of a $100,000 home with an earned income of $50,000 would have paid about $300 per year in additional tax.

Rossford and Northwood were among many Toledo-area suburban districts with tax requests on the ballot.

Voters handily approved an additional 4.9-mill continuing levy in the Anthony Wayne district and a new 6.9-mill levy in the Ottawa Hills schools but rejected a 2.9-mill levy in the Springfield schools.

In Anthony Wayne, the new tax will raise about $4 million annually and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $171.50 each year.

The Ottawa Hills millage will generate $1.05 million annually and cost the owner of a $200,000 home $483 per year.

The 2.9-mill continuing Springfield levy would have generated about $1.86 million per year and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $100 annually.

Renewal requests in the Elmwood, Eastwood, Evergreen, Benton-Carroll-Salem, and Woodmore districts were approved.

Contact Carl Ryan at: carlryan@theblade.com or 419-724-6095.