STRONGSVILLE, Ohio (WJW) — Strongsville City Schools is facing a concerning financial future that hinges on the fate of Issue 9 this November.
“Our school district will be a shell of itself,” Superintendent Dr. Cameron Ryba said. “You won’t be able to recognize it.”
Strongsville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Cameron Ryba said the district faces two options: Reduce expenses or generate new revenue through a new levy.
“What we know and love about Strongsville City Schools and what’s made us a premier district is no longer going to exist simply because we don’t have the funds to operate at that level anymore,” Ryba said.
Issue 9 is a proposed five-year, 6.7-mill operating levy that combines with the 2002 levy.
Per year, it would cost each homeowner roughly $235 per $100,000 of current auditor-assessed value.
“It’s a renewal of a 3.4-mill levy that our community’s already paying with the addition of a 3.3-mill levy of new revenue,” Ryba said. “And that will keep us financially stable for five years. And all of the reductions that we’ve outlined yesterday, in phase three, will not be put into place.”
Ryba said there’s a phased budget reduction plan in place over the next few years that will help by cutting close to $5 million from the operating budget, but it’s not nearly enough.
If Issue 9 fails, the plan calls for $15.2 million in cuts by the 2027-28 school year, bringing total reductions to $20 million.
Those cuts include faculty, support staff and supplemental contracts, as well as core academic, athletic and arts programs. Special education programming would also move to a state minimum.
Transportation cuts would mean no busing for the high school and no busing for elementary students who live within 2 miles of school.
“We are talking about moving to a state minimum education where kids come and it’s more of a factory model than what we know and need for our kids today,” Ryba said.
Ryba said hundreds of people in the district would lose their jobs, and that would hurt the most.
“I think it’s an important time for our community to come together, to learn the facts and to decide. Not only what do we want to see our schools become, but what do we want our community to become? Because when our schools start to decline so will our community,” Ryba said.
More information about Issue 9 and the district’s financial outlook is available from Strongsville City Schools right here.