Columbus schools hinge on bond issue
 Advisers press for second levy in ’09
2/21/2008
By Simone Sebastian
The Columbus Dispatch
The Columbus schools will need to pass another bond issue by November 2009 to avoid increasing the tax rate for their school-construction project and dismantling the staff that runs it, advisers told a district committee yesterday.
In recent months, district officials have stressed the schools’ need for an operating levy, which they are expected to place on the November ballot. Yesterday, administrators said it was urgent to pass a bond issue as well.
The district’s millage committee, which will recommend to the school board whether to ask for a bond issue and a levy, will consider how to handle the district’s two financial needs. The panel’s recommendation is to come this spring.
Voters approved a $392 million bond issue in 2002 to pay for the first two segments of the seven-segment school-construction project. The bond, in combination with state money, is paying for 26 new schools and nine building renovations, as well as the 18 district staff members who oversee the projects.
All but one of the buildings to be funded by the original bond issue will be completed by summer 2009. The Africentric school is on hold until officials can determine how its site will be affected by an Ohio Department of Transportation highway project.
John Adams of Fifth Third Securities and a financial adviser to the district, presented the option of paying for the next phase of the building project with a no-new-mills bond issue.
Assuming a home’s value doesn’t change, the issue would not cost an owner more in taxes.
The ballot measure would maintain the current 3.9-mill tax rate, raising an estimated $220 million, Adams said.
That bond issue would pay for construction of 18 to 20 schools, said Carole Olshavsky, the district’s senior executive overseeing the project.
There was little discussion among committee members — who include business leaders, board members and district residents — during the meeting. They made no decisions about how much millage would be sought nor when the levy and bond issues would appear on the ballot.
Committee member Robyn Taylor suggested that using future bond money to pay for district supplies or equipment could win voters’ support of the ballot issue. Taylor, who is president of the Columbus Council of PTAs, said parents better understand the need for new textbooks than new school buildings.
