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LEAVITTSBURG -- Voters will decide whether to approve the LaBrae Board of Education's push for a 3-mill, five-year replacement levy in the Nov. 7 election.
Superintendent Anthony Calderone said if the levy passes, it will bring the previously passed permanent improvement levy from 1984 valuation at 1.55 mills up to 3 mills.
He said the replacement would restore the levy to current valuation and would generate $374,000 annually. Funds from the levy are used for renovating, remodeling, rehabilitating, furnishing and equipping school buildings and improving the four school sites.
The owner of a $100,000 home would pay $105 per year.
In a letter written by Board of Education President Russell Sewell, he mentioned the Ohio General Assembly has been considering a bill that addresses property valuations so that they're determined on a three-year average preceding a reappraisal year instead of the immediate year prior to the reappraisal.
Regardless of what happens at the state level, Sewell ensured the district would partner with the Trumbull County Budget and Tax Commission to re-evaluate the 3.0 mills. Sewell explained that the measure would be to set the rate at a level to generate the same revenue the district had sought when the levy first was authorized last spring.
"We are not looking to see a revenue windfall generated by significant and unanticipated increases to property values," Sewell wrote.
Calderone said the public will not begin to pay on the replacement levy until March 2025 after the community's debt is completed for the building of the new LaBrae complex.
Calderson stated that the Labrae School Complex will have major components that need replaced, including replacement of the complex's chillers.
Calderone said LaBrae Intermediate School soon will need a new roof. The revenue also will go toward addressing foundational issues and a "dire need" to repair the district's bus garage.
"The school tends to be the crown jewel of a community from a public asset standpoint. It tends to be a source of pride so I think our residents would want to see their facilities to be well cared for and this revenue would give us the opportunity to do that," Calderone said.