Greater Cleveland Residents Vote on School Construction

CLEVELAND — Voters in Northeast Ohio passed large school construction issues as well as other tax increases on Nov. 5 — despite some debate about what the money is funding.
One of the more controversial topics that passed was Superintendent Randy Stepp’s contract with the Medina City School District. Voters approved the school board’s request for an additional $5.6 million a year for operations. In the last few years, the district made cuts to its budget by reducing staff by 20 percent, limiting salaries, eliminating middle school electives and some high school honors classes, cutting busing to minimum levels and charging fees to play on sports teams. However, voters have been angry at the school board for awarding Stepp contracts that allowed him to receive $172,000 in reimbursement for student loans. Those payments still are under investigation by the state auditor, and Stepp is currently on paid leave while the district awaits a decision of whether or not to fire him, as reported by The Plain Dealer.
In other Northeast Ohio communities, tax initiatives for school construction passed in Lakewood, Cleveland Heights-University Heights and North Ridgeville.
Voters in Lakewood passed a $50 million bond issue by more than a two-to-one margin. It will allow the district to build three new elementary schools and rebuild a major part of the high school.
In North Ridgeville, a tax passed to raise $58 million for a construction project that will replace North Ridgeville Middle School and Wilcox Elementary School with a single new building. In 2006 and 2007, voters objected to replacing the two structures, and several voters objected this year to plans of demolishing the Ranger sports stadium and moving it to the high school property.
Despite a strong opposition to the measure, the request for a $134.8 million bond issue to update old schools in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District passed with the backing of a residents’ committee.
The tax increase requested for the Westlake schools failed. Superintendent Dan Keenan plans to have a proposal later this month that would cut $2 million from the district’s budget, which will put up to 30 teachers out of work. Opponents strongly campaigned against the text, questioning the need for an increase and claiming that teachers make too much money and that the district should cut more.