Belpre City Schools Levy voted down for ninth time since 1990

BELPRE, Ohio (WTAP) - The Belpre City Schools Levy was on the ballot during the midterms.

It would give the school district a little more than $22 million from the state of Ohio.

And would have been used to address buildings in the school district to be more up to date.

The public voted the levy down for the ninth time since 1990.

“I mean the board of education has put up now numerous requests for money to repair buildings and when you have older buildings and you had nine failures to get dedicated money to get repairs,” says Belpre City Schools superintendent, Jeff Greenley. “When your most state-of-the-art building is coming up on 70 years or closer to maybe 60, and your oldest building is almost 100. There are end of life repairs that are coming up.”

Greenley says that voters against the levy are not wanting an increase to their taxes.

Especially with the current economic situation and inflation.

Greenley says, “You know, again, the question is, ‘What’s the most efficient way to utilize taxpayer money? Is it to put band-aids on some of the issues we have on the buildings we have now? Or leverage the state money to build new?’ I mean, obviously, that’s the conversation that we’ve had since last September.”

Greenley says that he is glad to see the people of Belpre taking part in voting, but the need for promoting schools and upgrades is still at the forefront.

“But I guess the reality for the school district is the need for money for facilities remains,” says Greenley.

Greenley says that the Belpre Board of Education will come together to discuss the next steps.

Including the next time it will put the levy back on the ballot.

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