That was the news Avon Lake City Schools received last week after the mandatory recount for Issue 16, the 37-year bond levy, was certified as passed. The 2.75-mill, $88 million bond issue to build a new middle school and repair existing elementary schools passed by an extremely narrow margin, 3,531 votes in favor to 3,511 against. There was no change from the initial vote count after the mandatory recount.
While school officials cheered, there was no shortage of people taking to social media to express their outrage and frustration over Issue 16’s razor-thin passage in what had turned out to be a contentious issue, having failed twice in the previous two elections. School officials scaled back their initial request in 2023, and as the saying goes, the third time was the charm.
Avon Lake City Schools Superintendent Joelle Magyar said she is obviously pleased that the bond issue passed, but she understands why some people were opposed, and she and the school will work hard to persuade detractors.
For starters, she stated that once the new middle school is completed, the district will reduce the number of buildings it manages and maintains from seven to five.
Completion is expected within three to four years.
The closure of Erieview Elementary School is expected to save the district approximately $700,000 per year in operational and maintenance costs.
Troy and Learwood would be combined into the new school, and the district anticipates significant savings, potentially up to $2 million per year, as a result of the consolidation.
In addition, the elementary school updates and upgrades are expected to save money by upgrading HVAC systems, electrical and lighting systems, and energy-efficient windows, among other improvements.
So, while the bond will raise $88 million over the next 37 years, increasing property taxes, district officials expect operational and maintenance expenses to fall during that time, resulting in some property tax relief. Issue 16 is expected to increase property taxes by approximately $100 per $100,000 of appraised property value.
“Each time on the bond levy that we’ve put up in November 2023 and again in November 2024, it has always been a close race,” Magyar told me.
“The community was divided on the new building for a variety of reasons. I believe there is a general sentiment in the City of Avon Lake that residents valued their neighborhood schools and did not want them to close.
“So the first two times that we put something on the ballot, we were essentially closing all of those neighborhood schools and building two brand new elementary schools and a middle school,” she said.
“We consistently went back out and got additional feedback from the community after both of those losses to try to understand it as much as we could, asking questions about where people’s heads were in terms of school funding.
“Then, of course, with the timing of the reappraisal here in Lorain County happening in the end of last year and people getting letters indicating that their home values were going to go up, I think scared a lot of people,” Magyar told me.
“I think what ultimately helped us is folks had a clearer picture of what their taxes and financial picture looked like this time, and the fact that we were asking for 60 percent less than previous asks, so folks were in a bit of a different position this time to support the issue.”
Magyar stated that the new school and improvements will better reflect how students learn and are taught in a much more modern era than when these builders were originally built, which was approximately seven to eight decades ago.
She stated that schools must change and be updated, not only in terms of how students learn and interact, but also in many of the basic upgrades and updates that most people take for granted, such as dependable heating, cooling, and electricity.
“I’m very happy and excited that the kids of Avon Lake will get to be educated in an in a brand new, state-of-the-art building and we’ll be able to provide experiences for them that we can’t necessarily do right now because of the constraints of the spaces in which we educate them,” says Magyar.
“We are looking forward to engaging the community on that new building and educating them all along the way to say why this is important and also in making people feel part of the process of building this brand new building and getting excited about it.”
The new middle school will serve students in grades six through eight.
Magyar added that a lot of work needs to be done before any shovel touches any dirt. She estimated that it will take between 18 and 24 months to break ground. They will inform the public and hold public meetings throughout the process, she stated.
