JEFFERSON — There are no photos of happy children on the campaign literature for the Jefferson Area Local Schools’ 10-year, 11.9-mill emergency levy.

“Not this time,” said Superintendent Doug Hladek, motioning to a stark, red-and-black campaign postcard, emblazoned with, ‘It’s Your Choice.’

The ‘It’s Your Choice’ motto was chosen because it represents the crux of the district’s emergency levy issue, Hladek said, which is up on Tuesday’s ballot.

“We know this is a hefty amount to put before voters. This is about trying to put the facts forward,” Hladek said. “We made these cuts and people said, ‘We don’t want all of these programs eliminated, what can we do?’ This is what it will take to (reverse) the cuts we’ve already made and possibly prevent another $1.5 million in cuts.”

On April 17, the Board of Education announced $1.5 million in cuts for the current school year. Thirty-nine personnel cuts, 21 of them teaching positions, were announced at that time. Additionally, Hladek suggests that up to $1.5 million in cuts will be necessary for the following year.

Coaching position cuts for freshman football, basketball, baseball, volleyball and cheerleading; and junior high golf, tennis and cheerleading also were announced at that time. Adviser positions for yearbook, newspaper, vocal director, majorette adviser, junior and senior high student council, Model UN assistant coach and drama were also eliminated.

“80 percent of our operating expenses are personnel, so that’s where we have to make the cuts,” said Phil Pawlowski, the levy campaign chair. A CPA with a practice in the village, Pawlowski and his wife are both Jefferson High School graduates and they have three children in the school system.

“I don’t think that you really can appreciate the import of the cut until you experience it,” Pawlowski said. “I think that people have an optimism that programs can be saved, the district can find creative options to save things without the levy money. But the district has already been being creative for years.”

Hladek and Pawlowski said that the funding crisis is a result of declining revenue from local and state sources and rising costs.

A property owner with a house valued at $100,000 would pay an additional $346.50 in property taxes in 2013; in 2014, the millage will decrease to 9.9 mills and the property tax for a $100,000 home would decrease to $341.85, according to campaign literature provided by the district. The decrease in millage is because the board will not be seeking renewal of the other three levies when they expire, according to the campaign levy literature.

The Board of Education has prepared an 11-page levy information booklet, available online at jefferson.k12.oh.us.

Hladek concedes that 11.9 mills sounds like an enormous increase. Pawlowski pointed out, however, that 11.9 mills in Jefferson will raise a roughly equivalent sum to the amount Ashtabula City Schools’ proposed levy would raise.

“We’ll get $250,000 per mill,” Pawlowski said.

“To bring forward a lesser-mill levy would only be fooling the public,” Hladek said. “We would still have to be doing a lot of cutting.”

Hladek concedes there has been vocal opposition to the levy in the community; at the same time, he said that the board is well aware of the community’s support throughout the years.

“We are grateful, and we know we are in tough economic times,” Hladek said.

“We understand the pain, but we have to give you the facts, and the option,” Pawlowski added.

The Rev. Scott Ardary of the Pentecostal Community Church in New Lyme Township opposes the levy. Ardary said that he is thinking of running for the school board in the next election, and he helped to organize a levy opposition group, Jefferson Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility.

“We support Jefferson Schools, but we support our families first,” he said. “Our problem is, (the Board of Education) is not tackling the problem.”

That problem, Ardary said, is that state funding is going down, but the board is asking for a levy instead of making changes to the budget.

“We are going to be in the same position four years down the road, there has to be a long-term fix to this problem and they (the board members) are elected to do that.”

Ardary said the levy opposition group wants to see administration wage freezes, increases in employee contributions to health insurance and other contract changes made as part of balancing the district’s budget.

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