A Republican group in Strongsville is again throwing its weight against Strongsville City School District’s efforts to get a levy passed in November, as it has the past two election cycles.
The group Strongsville GOP, through its federal political action committee, the Better Ohio PAC, has purchased mailers and run social media ads opposing the levy over the last two years in addition to maintaining an anti-levy website. The exact amount it's spent opposing the levy is difficult to determine from federal records because the same PAC also supports the group’s overall operations. The group gets donations from dozens of local Republicans and business owners but also from the campaigns of statewide Republican figures, including Ohio Auditor Keith Faber and Ohio Rep. Derrick Merrin.
Shannon Burns, president of the executive board of Strongsville GOP, said the local Republican organization initially had supported Strongsville City School District’s levy in 2019. But he argued the district has been holding onto its savings with the proceeds from that levy, rather than using the money to benefit students.
“The voters turned down a renewal of this levy in November of last year because they recognized that the schools had an exorbitant amount of cash reserves far greater than any other school district in the area, probably far greater as a percentage than almost any other district in the state,” Burns said.
The Strongsville School Levy Facts website suggests “not one dollar” of the previous levy went toward students, citing $77 million in reserves – which, Strongsville school officials say, is an estimate that includes $25 million the district has in a fund to replace aging buildings.
After the levy failure in November 2023, another renewal failed again in March 2024, leading the district to drop the total amount it’s asking for this November from 5.9 mills to 4.9 mills. Richard Micko, president of the Strongsville Board of Education, himself a member of the Strongsville GOP group, said its normal for school districts to keep as much in reserves as they can.
“Ohio schools have a levy cycle where cash balances initially grow because expenses are lower than revenue,” Micko said. “As expenses increase, the cash balance is spent down. The ‘not one dollar’ is a silly timing game. It has as much meaning as looking at a parent's college savings while the child is a junior in high school – ‘not one dollar’ has been spent on the child?”
The district’s five-year forecast, submitted to the state in the spring, shows the district running out of money by the end of the 2027-2028 school year, and increasing deficit spending each year leading up to it.
While the previous levies were set for a five-year time period, this current levy is for a “continuous” time period, meaning it won’t expire. Micko said that’s because it’s expensive for the district to keep putting the levy on the ballot.
“We're going to spend over $100,000 in election fees to have this election three times," Micko said. "Whether it wins or whether it passes or fails, it's $100,000. And as a board, we said we would rather spend that $100,000 on our students."
Burns said Strongsville GOP also takes umbrage with the fact that the levy is “permanent,” at a time when some residents will already see increases in their property taxes in 2025 due to Cuyahoga County's sexennial reappraisal this year.
Those property value increases don’t take effect until next year; if the levy is approved this November, it will only be bringing in money based on current property values. Still, the property tax increase from the reappraisal will increase the district’s revenues, even if the levy fails, by about $2.4 million per year.
The district can't control the county reappraisal process, Micko said, and added the district has built in the increase from the reappraisal into its budget forecast. The district's expenses - items like classroom materials, healthcare and pay raises to keep up with cost of living increases - are going to continue to increase, while the state's funding will remain relatively flat.
"They (Strongsville GOP) want to solve inflation through the school district. And so when they say, 'we want a revenue neutral option,' they seemed to forget about inflation," he said.
Strongsville City School District – situated in a wealthy suburb of Cleveland - regularly receives high marks on Ohio’s state report card; this year, the district received five out of five stars overall. Burns said the anti-levy campaign is not criticizing the quality of education at the district; merely the way it handles its finances.
"They didn't need this money in order to achieve that (five-star success)," Burns said. "Why do we know they didn't need it? Because they didn't spend any of it."
However, the school district says it’ll need to cut back significantly if the levy isn’t approved this November, and that could impact academics, according to its website. The district could cut course offerings and staff, and increase class sizes and student activity fees if voters don't approve the levy, according to a fact sheet on its website
If the levy passes, the district would eliminate most student activity fees and no longer charge tuition for families with children attending a full day of pre-kindergarten. Parents currently pay for half of that program, about $2,200 a year. Burns questioned why the district isn't already offering those benefits with its current surplus, however.
"They say, 'We're going to give you this. We're going to get rid of pay to play,'" Burns said. "Our kids in Strongsville have had to pay to play football while the schools have been banking $51 million over that five year period of time."
A pro-levy Cuyahoga County PAC called "Continue the Excellence" has spent about $42,000 so far this year, county election records show.
