VOTE FOR ISSUE 21
LORAIN SCHOOLS LEVY

In November 2001, voters approved a $41 million bond issue over 23 years, plus an additional 0.5-mill tax for years 2002 - 2024 to pay for classroom facilities in the new buildings. Notes were issued in 2001 and 2002, meaning the levy will be collected through 2025. Maintenance and upkeep needs are part of the normal life of buildings, and after growing maintenance costs within the district, as well as to ensure the best long-term value, Lorain City Schools created a Capital Plan that includes: - Maintaining safety & security, including our safety system, video cameras, windows and door-locking systems to ensure that with today’s realities, our students and staff are safe - Maintaining critical systems like HVAC, roofs, and capital needs for our aging buildings - Maintaining technology to ensure our classrooms continue to benefit from necessary resources and educational tools Costs for these projects since the pandemic have ballooned from “big ticket items,” to “very big ticket items.” As such, an updated five-year forecast in May included $5 million per year to cover repairs to buildings — totaling $35 million over the next five years to complete everything from resurfacing parking lots to replacing ceiling tiles and gym floors.

ISSUE 21 ensures our facilities are safe, well-maintained, and provide excellent educational opportunities for our students. This permanent improvement levy will fund maintenance costs for the district and its facilities. It cannot be used for salaries or personnel costs. ISSUE 21 keeps our children safe, by: - Maintaining safety & security, including our safety system, video cameras, windows and door-locking systems to ensure that with today’s realities, our students and staff are safe - Maintaining critical systems like HVAC, roofs, and capital needs for our aging buildings - Maintaining technology to ensure our classrooms continue to benefit from necessary resources and educational tools

Unfortunately, due to the restrictive nature of those funds, no. However, they did delay the district's need to ask residents for new money. Here's how: - Lorain City Schools received nearly $58 million in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. - It spent approximately $12 million on staff; $14 million on programs, services and supplies; $8 million on roofing projects; and $20 million to reimburse the general fund for salaries. The initial nearly $4 million allocated to the district was used to cover initial costs from the pandemic and initial revenue losses. - The last time Lorain City Schools passed a new levy was in 2012 — which generates about $3.3 million annually. It will be up for renewal in 2025. - It previously placed a 6.8-mill, five-year levy on the November 2021 ballot, which would have generated about $4.1 million per year. It failed by 454 votes.

Please continue to follow the levy website and content posted through social media at Facebook.com/Lorainschoolslevy. We also encourage you to attend any of our upcoming events and activities -- Superintendent Jeff Graham and members of the Citizens for Lorain Schools levy committee will be on hand to chat with you!

Residents can request a yard sign from any Lorain City School, or complete this form online to have one delivered to your home. Donations can be made to the Citizens for Lorain Schools via Venmo @citizensforlorainschools, by check at any Lorain City School, or by attending any of our upcoming events and fundraisers!

Historically, Lorain has been through some tough financial times. In the past, these challenges forced the district to enact three rounds of RIFs (Reductions in Force) in years 2002, 2008 and 2010, which primarily affected younger employees who had lower wages. These RIFs also resulted in an older, and more experienced, educator pool, which comes with higher salaries. For context, over 20% of our teaching staff are at the top of the salary schedule, with 92 teachers eligible to retire at full or nearly-full retirement. You can review this information in the district's CUPP Report at this link.

After the pandemic, state and federal governments recognized that the needs of students were more extreme than they were prior to the pandemic. Therefore, they distributed ESSER funds (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) to school districts which were to be used for specific, restricted purposes intended to help schools prevent, prepare for and respond to the pandemic. In Lorain City Schools, these funds were primarily allocated to additional staffing to help our students through counseling and wraparound services, which, thankfully, have become less needed as time has passed. As a result, the district has developed a prioritized budget to reduce its current rate of spending, which all districts must submit to the ODE if they are anticipating a deficit in the next two years. This plan will be updated by the end of the calendar year, when we have a clearer financial picture post-election and executed in the spring for the 2025-2026 school year. You can review the summary of our ESSER allocations through this link.

All public entities are required to have a formal, written budgeting process, and the Lorain City Schools submits theirs to the ODE twice a year. It can be viewed on the ODE’s website, and there are public updates at board meetings. The statement above refers to a discrepancy in which the ODE anticipated our district’s facilities needs to be listed as a line-item in the Five-Year-Forecast, when these details were in fact listed in the budget’s assumptions (this is an accompanying document which outlines the district’s financial expectations or expenses used to create the master budget). You can view the document with details regarding our facilities planning at this link.

Yes. Our district continually reviews enrollment projections, staffing and building utilization data as part of its budgetary process. While enrollment in urban school districts is plummeting drastically across the country, enrollment in Lorain has actually increased, and exceeded those enrollment projections. This, combined with the COVID-19 ESSER funds, has meant that the district has been able to hold off on going back to the community for levy funding until now. What makes ISSUE 21 so critical at this point, is that capital needs have become much more expensive post-COVID. One small example of this, is that a simple 2x4, which used to be $1.29, is now closer to $14. This kind of inflation has been unprecedented, and very difficult to predict and budget for the many needs of our schools. The operations planning document can be viewed at this link.

Yes, the “We Believe” strategic plan is the driving force for increased student performance in Lorain City Schools. As referenced above, ESSER funds enabled the district to hire additional supports to help our students through counseling and wraparound services. Our students had needs and grant funds were provided to meet those needs. Those funds are no longer available and the needs of our students have lessened as we move further away from the worst of COVID times. We are consistently updating our plan (board approved in August, and accessible through this link) and will provide a detailed update within the next couple of months.

There are several reasons for this. Post-COVID, our students needed additional supports in the areas of counseling and wraparound services. In addition, many goods and services became more costly, due to inflation and other factors beyond our control. However, the more complicated explanation for this comes from legislation passed back in 1976. House Bill 920 was a property tax reform enacted to keep the aforementioned inflation from increasing voted taxes. This means that our school levies can never collect more than the dollar amount of the original passed millage. Therefore, even as the cost of material goods, salaries, healthcare and supportive services increase, the income to our schools remain stagnant from our taxpayers with the exception of inside millage which relative to voted tax levies is a very small amount. You can read more about HB920 here.