The Ohio Hi-Point Career Center is putting forward its first levy in more than 40 years to fund campuswide facilities improvements and investments in its growing satellite programs.
Ohio Hi-Point Career Center Superintendent Rick Smith and the school’s Communications Director Kelsey Webb discuss marketing strategy for the levy the five-county joint vocational district levy that will be on the May 8 ballot during a coffee chat at Native Coffee on Thursday afternoon. (EXAMINER PHOTO | REUBEN MEES)
“Our goal is to make sure voters know what is going to be on the ballot in May,” Superintendent Rick Smith said during one of two coffee chat events Thursday to promote the “21st Century Education for 21st Century Jobs” campaign.
The 0.6-mill permanent levy request will raise about $2 million per year for the five-county joint vocational district. It would cost the average owner of a $100,000 property about $22 per year or $1.83 per month, Smith said.
“It has been 40 years since our last levy and our hope is that this will carry us another 40 years.”
The levy request will appear on the ballot May 8 for voters in nearly all of Logan, Champaign, Union, Hardin and Auglaize counties along with a few additional voters in four contiguous counties where school districts overlap.
If approved, the district plans to explore the scope of work that can be done given the amount of money approved by voters, the superintendent said.
“We have a vision of what we would like to do, but we don’t want to invest a lot of money in drawings and engineering until we know we have the money to make it a reality,” he said.
The plan, however, is to use about $1.6 million per year as a revenue stream to borrow against. That will allow the district to make major improvements to the existing campus, including renovations and an expansion of the main building, Smith said. The improvements are focused on creating modern learning labs and physical improvements that will prolong the life of the existing building.
“All our labs need modern upgrades,” he said, noting improvements like the Dr. Sloan SMART Technology Center — a learning lab focusing on autonomous vehicle technology made possible by a $600,000 endowment from the Sloan Foundation that will be unveiled during an April 4 ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The superintendent also said security protocol needs to be addressed throughout the buildings to ensure students are safe on campus.
The remaining $400,000 per year generated by the tax request will go toward investments in the school’s growing satellite programs that are offered on the campuses of the 14 school districts in the five counties.
Read complete story in Friday’s Examiner.
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