Cuyahoga Falls Voters Approve School District and Library Levies

While the weather was damp and chilly, that didn’t keep supporters from passing levies in Cuyahoga Falls Tuesday.

Voters approved Issue 16, the , with 3,290 votes. The 1.9 mill levy replaces the current 1.3 mill levy in place, which expires in December.

The Cuyahoga Falls City School district also received backing from residents. The district’s 9.97 mill, 5-year replacement levy was approved with 3,261 votes for the measure.

How will this impact your budget?

As for the library levy, the owner of $100,000 home in town will dish out close to $58 each year in taxes and school levy will cost about $150 annually.

In an earlier report, Cuyahoga Falls Patch Local Editor sat down with Library Director Kevin Rosswurm to discuss .

Rosswurm said the library uses the levy for resources that include the purchase of materials, such as books and movies, as well as staffing for the library. Recent were privately funded. 

Also celebrating in a congratulatory email Tuesday night, Superintendent Ed Holland thanked the city school district’s staff for their efforts to engage the community and earn support.

“It was critical for our continued operation for excellence and it is great to see that the community still supports a high quality education,” Holland said. “The passage of the levy does not solve our financial struggles but together we can continue to keep the district solvent and functioning. We still have much work to do.”

School Board President Therese Dunphy echoed Holland’s excitement.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you for putting the kids in the community first,” she said. “Cuyahoga Falls has a strong history and tradition of supporting its schools and that played out today (Tuesday).”

Still, Dunphy said the school board will still have to be prudent in how it manages its resources. While the levy essentially replaces the gap expected from state funding cuts, she added “keeping revenues flat is the new up.”

The levy is expected to generate $8.3 million each year. The approved funds come at a time when the district anticipates state funding to be cut by about 24 percent, according to Ohio Governor John Kasich’s education funding proposal.

In April, the school board announced teacher and staff layoffs effective June 30; cuts needed to balance the budget. Dunphy said she was glad the district won't have to look into cutting academic programming, which has helped earn the district its Excellent rating from the Ohio Department of Education.

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