New Groveport Madison levy to appear on May ballots
GROVEPORT, Ohio (WCMH) -- Voters in the Groveport Madison School District will once again see a bond levy on the ballot.
The Groveport Madison School Board voted Monday night to place the levy onto May’s primary election ballot.
Despite some board members saying last week that the bond issue was not ready to be back on the ballot, the board voted to move forward without any objections.
In less than five months, voters will once again have the option to vote for or against Issue 38.
The funds raised by the bond defeated in November would have been used to build three new middle schools and an addition to the high school. According to the district, two of the current middle schools have an open classroom concept, which has led to distracting learning environments and safety and security concerns.
“There's a need for improvement in Groveport,” resident Edward Copley said. “There's a need for growth with good buildings that you can put the children in, let them stay in the nice, warm building and not have to go out in the rain to get to their classroom.”
Copley was part of a committee assigned to visit each of the district’s schools to see what was working and what wasn’t working.
“We get to see everything from the gymnasium, the entrance doors, the plumbing, the HVAC, you get to see the whole thing, get to ask questions about what are the problems in the school,” he said.
After doing that, he believes the district does need to add new schools, not only because the current ones are outdated, but because of growth the district is experiencing.
“Groveport is seeing a lot of new communities and when the homebuilders are putting in three- and four-bedroom homes, that means children and when you put in more children, the schools that you have, they're not going to support them,” Copley said.
May’s bond issue would issue a 2.33 mills levy, which would cost about $81.55 per $100,000 of assessed property value. In November, voters rejected a 2.44 mills levy, which would have cost residents $85 per $100,000 assessed property value.
One of the issues some board members brought up is that they felt that the bond issue didn’t reflect what the community wanted. Copley believes residents were given plenty of opportunity to voice their opinions, and now have until May to do so.