POLAND — Voters in Poland Township and Poland Village will decide in the general election whether they want new schools in the near future.

A 12.1-mill bond issue, along with a 0.05-mill tax levy, will be combined into one vote.

The 0.05-mill tax levy, according to Poland Superintendent Craig Hockenberry, is a requirement of the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.

“It is mandatory,” Hockenberry said. “The OFCC requires a levy be in place to maintain new buildings. Since we could be receiving 19% of the project (of building new schools), we had to meet this requirement.”

He said the idea was to lay all the funds before voters so there are no surprises later. In fact, the cost of the new schools would actually be closer to $120 million without the state funding of 19%, but the state’s share means the levy will bring in approximately $105 million.

The last bond issue, which was on the ballot in November 2015, would have built a new K-8 school on the Dobbins property and renovate the high school. That plan called for demolition of five Poland schools. Residents turned down the levy by 62%, which sent the Poland Board of Education back to the drawing board.

“In meetings with the public in the village (in 2022), the message was clear,” Hockenberry said. “They didn’t want one campus in the township. It was the most efficient model, but voters still wanted neighborhood schools.”

Since the 2015 attempt at a bond issue, Poland school officials have invested a lot into the older buildings. In a school board meeting earlier this year, Poland School Treasurer Janet Muntean talked about loans the district has taken out in the past to deal with major repairs and renovations.

Muntean said those loans include $3 million in 2009 to add two classrooms at the high school, along with putting a new roof on McKinley, adding windows and a kindergarten classroom at Union, and renovating the administrative offices.

In 2009, a loan for just over $1.7 million dealt with HVAC at the high school and automating the HVAC districtwide.

In 2001, she said, the district took out a $5.3 million loan for air conditioning in all five buildings, rooflines at Dobbins and North, the connector at McKinley and interior renovations at McKinley and the middle school.

“Each of those loans were at different banks,” Muntean said. “I worked with Huntington Public Capital to combine those three loans into one.”

She said combining saved the district interest and will help pay off the loan faster. The combining took place in 2019, and the loans could be paid off by the target date of 2026. The district is paying roughly $600,000 per year on the loans.

Hockenberry said the loans have helped keep up on the aging buildings, but down the road, the costs that go along with aging buildings are going to require going back to voters.

For now, the focus is on the plan on the ballot. By waiting for 2023 to put it on the ballot, the school district was able to qualify for the OFCC funds if voters approve the measure.

One wrench thrown into the mix is the reassessment of property values in Mahoning County. Auditor Ralph Meacham spoke to a group at the Canfield Library earlier this month on what that the new valuations mean. He said property valuations have increased across the county, with many seeing about a 35% increase.

“If your property valuation goes up 35%, that does NOT mean your taxes will increase by 35%,” he said.

He explained that when property values increase, the needed millage to raise a specific amount goes down. He said there would not be an increase in outside millage (millage that is voted on) as those levies can only raise a specific amount of dollars. The inside millage (the 10 % governments can impose without a vote) could see a small increase.

Meacham said the new valuations likely will see one-third of the people paying less tax, one third paying the same and one third paying a little more. As to what amount that would be, Meacham said, “We won’t know for sure until mid-January.” He said the final numbers will come from the state.

“The new valuation will affect everyone differently,” Hockenberry said.

For the Poland bond levy, the ballot language says it will collect at a cost of $424 annually for each $100,000 valuation. Hockenberry said in the Poland community, the average home valuation is $212,000, which would see a bond levy amount of $839 per year.

“That is an investment,” he said.

Meacham did say the bond levy would not change for 2024. If passed, it would bring in what the ballot language says it will.