Library Books Own Spot On Ohio County Schools Levy In 2024
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WHEELING - The Ohio County Public Library will have its own line item on Ohio County Schools excess levy for voters to check when it comes before them in 2024.
Library officials appeared before board of education members during their meeting Monday to speak of their partnership with the school district, with both sides promising to work together to pass a levy next year that benefits them both.
Board members in 2021 voted to cut by one-third the money it provided the library as a share of revenue from its excess levy. The move reduced the library's funding from about $884,547 annually to $589,698, according to data provided by the school district at that time.
Library officials said the excess levy money typically represented about 40% of their operating budget.
Now the idea between the school board and library board is to let the voters decide whether the library's funding should be reinstated.
"We are going to be on the excess levy the school district is pursuing," explained Anthony Werner of the library's board of trustees. "We're going to have our own vote - our own line item - so that we can ask the citizens to consider and re-establish our level of funding that we have been given every year.
"It has varied in recent years because of some decisions made by the board of education. It will be up to the citizens that we get established as a matter of right. It will give us an ability to have certainty for the next four years."
The library as an entity is not permitted under state law to have its own excess levy. Instead, it must partner with either the Ohio County Schools or the Ohio County Commission to put a levy before voters.
"We will be riding along with them (Ohio County Schools) as an ally," Werner continued.
The current Ohio County Schools excess levy that includes library funding is planned to go before voters in the May 14, 2024, primary election.
It doesn't expire until June 30, 2025.
The library board of trustees still "is deliberating" on just how much funding it will ask voters to approve next spring, he continued.
"We were disappointed to have our level of funding reduced from where it had been for decades," Werner said. "We're considering what is the proper amount for the citizens to establish for us."
The decision needs to come soon as the paperwork for the levy needs to be filed with the Ohio County Commission by late January.
The library board next meets on Dec. 20.
On their end, Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kim Miller called the excess levy "an important piece of funding for the school district."
"It helps our teachers to have competitive pay, our students to have wonderful programs like strings and band and chorus - all the extra things we our most proud of in our county," she said.
School board member David Croft served as president of the board when the library cuts were made.
"The ability for the library to have its own vote is really exciting," he said.
He noted that for the library's request to pass, it would only need more than a 50% majority vote from residents. If the library would choose to partner with the county or city, a 60% vote would be needed for passage.
Croft said he would be willing to come to the library's next meeting to discuss strategy and how best to get the word out to voters.
"It's going to be work for all of us," he continued. "Our excess levy is critical to at least 100 jobs in the community. It's part of what makes Ohio County Schools spectacular. Our community has been spectacular every year in supporting education, and education and the library go hand in hand."
The board of education will convene for a work session at 8 a.m. today for the purposes of discussing the excess levy.
The board will next meet in regular session at 8 a.m. on Dec. 20 for its last meeting of 2023.
Both meetings will take place at the board office, 2203 National Road, Elm Grove.