OPINION: Bowling Green High School Asks for New School Levy

BY Tim Stechschulte

BOWLING GREEN, OH – Bowling Green residents are being asked to vote for a new high school levy once again. This time to the tune of $73 million for its initial phase.

Earlier levy requests have failed four times since 2017. This vote needs to follow the same pattern as the last four. As an architect once told me, “A rendering is not a plan”. There are many inconsistencies that, given the large levy commitments being proposed, should cause most citizens to want to ask questions. This article is an attempt to give the alternative side of the levy. We deserve better than feel good phrases like, ‘our kids deserve better.’ This levy appears to be nothing more than a money grab based on the facts gathered in this article. 

It appears the decision to upgrade a school comes from emotions and a sense of urgency to compete with neighboring school systems. I now see the ‘vote yes’ signs popping up everywhere. However, I am surprised that they are absent of the “save our democracy” tag line. It appears we need more history in our local school systems to explain what a constitutional republic is.  Of course it’s also assumed if you are against any school levy you hate all children and wish them to be destitute.

Some citizens are posting information to hold the school system accountable on a fast growing Facebook group called CLASS (Citizens Learning About School Shenanigans). The site is well researched with powerful arguments against the yes vote narrative. 

Do you remember Ohio’s push in the early 2000’s to offer a 50 percent match if your school district updated its schools? The claim was that we needed the new wired technology for classrooms. It was said that cement blocks do not bode well for ethernet cable, so we need new schools. Fast forward three years and Wi-Fi is now in vogue. So why are we building 30 year expected life span buildings based on quick changing and obsolete technologies?

I attended the first levy meeting in 2017, with then superintendent Francis Scruci presenting the initial outline and overview. The tone of the initial request for incorporating all classes into one complex was presented as a given outcome. Scruci emphatically said “there will be no option B, C or D, those have been reviewed extensively and professionally”. Scruci stated “The only option would be to build the entire complex as a new construction on the Poe Road location.” That levy was then turned down by the voters in 2017. An ‘us versus them’ atmosphere slowly took form at the next push for the levy, which was again offered to the voters, but magically now had options B, C and D this time. 

The timing for a new levy could not be any worse. The current inflationary environment and
the fact that Bowling Green is already reassessing the property values will add more strain
to local property owners, with farmers being the hardest hit. New property assessments will
begin Jan 1, 2024, which is in addition to the proposed school levy. I hand carried my
current property tax statement to the courthouse and requested a future look at how much it
will increase, for both the levy and the increased assessment property value. The result shows an approximate four hundred dollar increase in my bottom line of taxes owed. If the
30 year school levy is to pass that would add an additional total or over $510.00 per year.
Combined these two new charges will be over $910 per year using their levy estimator.
Keep in mind, this is only for the initial first phase being asked for. That is quite a difference
from the $40 dollars a year I am seeing from the pro levy group.

Another levy problem is that Bowling Green generates the monies for the school system by the use of property taxes. Bowling Green is predominantly a rental environment due to the large student population in town. That rental factor ends up driving a lower property value assessment per dwelling. Bowling Green’s owner occupied home percentage is a staggeringly low 34.3 percent, as compared to a national average of 64.4 percent. This scenario does not help the cause for a property tax based school system. Surrounding school systems such as Eastwood, Elmwood, Otsego; and North Baltimore all use an income tax base. The Bowling Green median home value of only $178,700 versus the national median value of $244,900, lowers the taxable revenue available to the schools by roughly 30 percent.

To add fuel to the fire, Democrat lead city government is lobbying to have the citizens vote yes for the new millage. Bowling Green city council just submitted a resolution stating that the schools are unacceptable and is asking voters to support the bond issue. City council should not be an advocacy group trying to endorse levies. It appears, the Democratic mayor Mike Aspacher has used city government buildings to endorse and support the levy, which might be in conflict with Ohio Revised Code. 9.03(C). A series of court cases and Ohio Attorney General Opinions sets forth a “firmly established background rule [that] a public entity is prohibited from expending public monies in the promotion of a ballot issue” without clear statutory authority to do so.

The existing high school was built in 1965 with major remodeling in the 1990’s. The school also added a new 739 seat performing arts center in 2009. Given the overall condition, the existing school is not exactly a rustic, Lincoln Log exterior, with a crescent shaped moon outhouse in the back. The new levy option would be to utilize a smaller portion of the existing complex and completely tear down the remainder. Given that analogy, we should then extrapolate the scenario that every home in Bowling Green with children, that was built before 1965 and remodeled in the 1990’s, with a new addition should be torn down as well for the sake of the children, and our democracy.

Disturbing examples that budget friendly voters find offensive include a new $750,000 football turf field. The purchase and yearly maintenance of that turf will end up costing approximately $1.2 million for the ten year life of that investment. Also questioned is what did the $5.3 million in Esser grant Covid fund dollars actually get applied to? Perrysburg Schools received $1.3 million or $244 per student. Bowling Green’s $5.3 million equates to $1828 per student. I asked a board member, to no avail, why didn’t the tax payers get a partial rebate for the 2020 year when the school system shut down for almost the whole school year? Other school districts in the U.S. received rebates if there schools had been shut down. Will any of the recently purchased $3.5 million worth of air conditioning units be available for use in the new proposed structures?

The state of Ohio provides suggestions for each program area, (see chart below) which is based on that school size. The existing square footage of 153,610 is proposed to increase up to 165,807 square feet. 

However, if you follow the State of Ohio’s suggested program size for the total footprint of that sized school, it should only be 136,207 square feet. Why does it need to be 29,600 square feet larger, considering a declining student body? The Bowling Green 9-12 grades have been showing steady decline since 2000. 1999 enrollment was 1226, by 2020 it was down to 860 and the last year recorded is at 779. Folks that is a 37 percent decrease. The enrollment was acquired from the Ohio education website.

Now let’s talk money. Previously, we have only talked about the initial phase one if the levy passes. However, if the levy passes you will then see the following next phases with an unknown millage request for each subsequent activity: 

• Bowling Green new property tax valuation increase on Jan 1, 2024, which is twenty five percent in my example. Some are much high percentages. 
• New proposed high school mileage levy at $73 million assuming no overruns. “Remember a rendering is not a plan”  
• New operations levy to be added for the new school, millage cost unknown.
• Build new or consolidate two or three grade schools next phase, also cost unknown
• New operations levy for the new grade schools, cost unknown. 

You ask, what else could go wrong? Well let’s look at some recent Bowling Green new build projects in roughly the last 2 years. The Veterans building in the city park ended up at $450 a square foot, instead of the standard $300 per square foot for commercial buildings. The new senior center downtown, went at least four times over budget. The recently completed Bowling Green administration building with all new furniture also went over budget. A rendering is not a plan! 

How then do we pay for our high school? Seems like even with all the above expenditures, we still have a lot of cash coming into the schools. Newly released school property tax revenues total $21,108,277, with a school property tax budget of $19,064,368 or a surplus of $2,043,909. We also could receive up to $2.9 million annually from the Rover pipeline project from 2022. A recent local article shows that this pipeline windfall itself could fund the new high school project without going back to the taxpayers. The state budget increase will go through 2027 totaling about $2.0 million annually. Also adding a very conservative figure of 30 percent to the new tax year assessment evaluations, should garner at least $6 million additional. These figures could total as high as $11 million dollars annually, so it appears we could pay for the school in six to seven years with the existing funds being generated. Why are we asking for another $73 million dollars? The money is already there in abundance.

Is the school district being a good steward of our property and money? I did receive the maintenance totals as a percent of overall budget from the school system. The last four years of maintenance averaged a meager 0.92 percent of the total budget. It is no wonder we have neglected properties given that anemic investment of less than one percent. Bowling Green schools are still not participating in the “open checkbook” state accountability website. Consider again all of the additional request for new levies and operational budgets that will be coming after this initial levy. What guarantee do we have that if built, the new school will increase test scores and provide additional students to attend, and the answer is none.  I am asking all Bowling Green residents to save our
constitutional republic and vote no.