CANFIELD — The Canfield Board of Education will take the final vote at its Wednesday meeting to place a bond levy on the Nov. 5 ballot in the amount of $64.19 million.

Once the bond issue is passed, the bond levy will go to the Mahoning County auditor, who will set the millage and cost per $100,000 of property valuation.

“Wednesday’s vote is the next step to putting the bond levy on the ballot,” Canfield Superintendent Joe Knoll said.

Voters had rejected, by 72%, a $108 million levy in 2022 that would have created one campus at the city-owned Red Gate Farm property in the township. In 2023, 61% of voters said no to a $105 million bond levy to build new K-4 and 5-8 school buildings.

After the second rejection, the board went back to the drawing board and came up with a nearly $64.2 million bond levy to replace the middle school and complete some needed renovations in the district’s other buildings. The final number was approximately $3 million less than originally figured.

“The board decided to take around $3 million off the bond levy request,” Knoll said. “They decided safety and security were must-haves.”

The safety upgrades involved secure vestibules at both elementary school buildings. The C.H. Campbell building vestibule is costing $72,000, and the Hilltop vestibule will cost $59,700. C.H. Campbell also is having a $276,000 upgrade with the addition of HVAC.

At the high school, summer projects also are underway and include three sections of gravel roof being redone. The sections are over the athletic section, the cafeteria and several classrooms.

“It is not the entire roof,” Knoll said. “It is just the gravel sections that need immediate attention.”

The cost of the roof repairs came in at $507,500. The high school also will have a partial paving project this summer at $436,000.

Also allocated for this summer was $150,000 to deal with drainage problems on the baseball and softball fields, and $42,000 to resurface the tennis courts.

“We are not going to spend the entire $3 million this year,” Knoll said. “A lot will carry over to 2025.”

He said the $64.2 million bond levy originally had $15 million set aside for renovations at the high school and elementary schools, but after the school board approved the projects taking place this year, the decision was to pull the $3 million out of the bond levy, which left the renovations at $12 million.

Board Treasurer Patricia Prince said the $12 million is a combination of the district’s permanent improvement dollars, the general fund carryover amount from prior years and from school improvement notes.

“The permanent improvement funds could have bought three new buses this year,” Prince said, “but we decided on the projects.”

As for the carryover amount, Knoll said that comes from being frugal with the district’s funds.

Knoll said the projects needed done now, and the board gave its blessing to get the jobs done with existing funds.

On a good note, Knoll said many of the projects from this year came in under estimates. The projects will continue next summer.

“Safety and security are simply must-haves,” Knoll said. “The elementary schools needed safer vestibules.”

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