Growing fast, Teays Valley asks voters to approve bond issue

ASHVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohio’s primary election is just weeks away, and people served by the Teays Valley school district will have the chance to vote on a 3.26 mil bond issue. 

District leaders said the bond is needed to keep up with growth in the district. 

Teays Valley Local School District is the largest district in Pickaway County. According to current predictions, the district is anticipating a 20 percent increase in enrollment over the next 10 years. District leaders said they need to build new schools to keep up with the projected growth. 

“We have 4,750-plus students, Teays Valley Local School District Superintendent Kyle Wolfe said. “We've enrolled over 150 students this year alone. And our biggest challenge is capacity issues.” 

The district is fairly large, stretching 156 square miles and currently housing four elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. 

“We have two buildings which are over capacity, one building that's at capacity, so just having enough facilities to educate our kids and do it in the way in which our community expects is difficult when you're out of space,” Wolfe said. 

In March 2024, the district presented a $96 million bond issue to the community. The plan was to build two new intermediate school buildings to houses grade fourth through sixth, convert all existing elementary schools to preschool through third grade, and repurpose the current midddle schools for seventh and eighth grades. 

Voters rejected the measure 75% to 25%. 

“That told us some things about that issue that they didn't like,” Wolfe said. “Real estate appraisals happened in Pickaway County. All of our voters saw an increase of anywhere from 25 to 47% in taxes. That was last year.” 

More than a year later, Teays Valley is back on the ballot. This new proposal is a similar but revised plan of the last one -- the new total cost would now be a little over $74 million.  

“The district is putting $10 million into the bond issue, which brings that bond issue down to $64.39 million dollars,” Wolfe said. “So we went back, listened to our voters and came back to them with something different.” 

The plan still includes the construction of two intermediate buildings. However, the buildings will house fifth and sixth graders, with space for future expansion. 

On social media, some voters have expressed concern, saying property taxes have been slowly on the rise.  

According to the Teays Valley website, property taxes would rise $4.38 per month, or $52.50 per year per $100,000 of assessed property value. 

“For our household, that comes down to about a large pizza a month, and that's a price that we feel comfortable contributing towards a strong learning environment and a strong Teays Valley,” parent Kim Miller said. 

Miller has two children in the district and is a supporter of Citizens for Teays Valley Schools. Miller grew up in a community that had overcrowded schools. 

“It's not a safe learning environment,” she said. “It's not a healthy learning environment. It definitely impacts the learning and just the experience that those kids get to have inside the classroom.” 

As election day draws near, Miller said she wants residents to know that the overcrowding problem isn’t going to just go away. 

“Even if we don't vote on it this time, we're still going to be overcrowded and we're going to have to come back and ask again,” Miller said. 

Wolfe said if the bond issue does not pass, the cost to add more modular classrooms to accommodate the projected growth, which could cost about $20 million over ten years.