ANNA — Anna Local Schools is looking to make a big upgrade to it’s facilities. To do so, they need the help of voters this March.
“The proposed project is about $20,000,000 and of that $20 million about half will come from the state and about half will come from us locally,” said Superintendent Andy Bixler. “Of our local share about half will come from real estate taxes and half from income tax.”
He said, the project will be paid off in 18 years.
The Anna Local Schools Board of Education initiated a complete facilities study with the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC). This study included an analysis of the district’s enrollment projections along with a detailed inspection of the school buildings, systems and equipment. The results of that study showed that the current facilities were well designed, solidly constructed, very well maintained and large enough for the projected student population. The report also indicated, however, the ongoing need to modernize the buildings and to extend their useful lives for future generations and make them safer, healthier, more efficient, and technologically superior to the present facilities.
The Anna School Board desired to be led by the community and asked 35 district residents to serve on a Facilities Planning Committee to learn about the results of the study and engage the community. This committee met several times last spring and last fall and hosted two community meetings to seek community input. Far and away, the choice resulting from this process was to renovate the Middle School/High School and to address any structural or system deficiencies at the Elementary School or the Ag building.
Input from the community also clearly showed the strong desire to distribute the local share of the costs as broadly as possible. With that in mind, the board decided to place a levy on the March 15 ballot that will ask for an increase of 0.25 percent of income tax and about 2.7 mills of property tax for a term of up to 18 years.
“This plan will allow us to improve all of our educational and operational systems, allow us to take advantage of a window of state money, allow us to borrow money at historically low rates and allow us to maintain the values and priorities that have become historically important to our community. The Anna Schools will be one of the last area schools to have an OSFC project and the first to have it paid off,” Bixler said.
He reinforced the renovation will add 30 to 40 years to the existing life of the buildings and their major systems, modern day security is a major part of this project, and the intention is that it is district-wide and will affect all programs.
The school board and administration has committed to a fact-only campaign for the March 15 levy. A flyer that was mailed to all district residents, along with other information about the renovation project can be found on the Anna Local Schools website, www.anna.k12.oh.us under “Quick Links.”
