At a special meeting last Wednesday, the district's Standards and Finance committees presented the fruits of their summer labors, and, as Finance Committee member Jeff Wirtz said, "the message is the same -- additional dollars are needed."

Speaking on behalf of the Standards Committee, chair Julie DuVal told the board her group recommended placing two separate issues on the November ballot: a 5-mill replacement levy and a new levy not to exceed 5 mills.

The committee placed highest priority on smaller classroom sizes; competitive teacher salaries; a principal in every building; restoring tutoring and other academic support; restoring textbooks, resources and technology; restoring transportation services to a one-mile radius for K-8 and maintaining cluster stops for high school busing; reducing the transportation portion of pay-to-participate fees; and restoring the middle school sports program.

An additional 1.5 mills was added to the committee's top tier of priorities, for maintaining current services. This was an approximate amount, from Superintendent Larry Zimmerman, that would need to be cut if no additional millage was passed.

Using the results of a phone survey conducted in the spring and a more recent Internet survey among its data, DuVal said her committee's recommendation balances the community's desire for high-quality education -- restoring some of the recent cuts in the district's budget -- and keeping the levy request "realistic."

"We scaled down some of our requests to try and come up with a realistic dollar amount," she said.

The highest-priority items total 4.084 mills. A second tier of priorities totaled approximately 0.77 mills.

Wirtz, reporting on behalf of the Finance Committee, made a similar recommendation, with a suggested second levy of not more than 4 mills.

"It's not a contradiction (of the Standards Committee report)," he said. "It is an attempt to respond to the voice of the voters (in light of three consecutive levy defeats). It would provide financial stability and would require some tough choices, but it would prudent to ask for no more."

The board of education will meet at 7 p.m. Monday at Creekview Intermediate School to make its determination.

Because of Ohio's rollback law, the 5-mill levy passed in 2003 and set to expire at the end of this year is currently being collected at 4.27 mills for residential property owners and 4.29 for commercial/industrial properties. The levy generates nearly $3.2-million a year, according to the Union County auditor's office.

Asking for a "replacement" of the 5-mill levy would restore the tax collection to the original 5 mills, meaning an additional $22.36 in taxes annually for every $100,000 in assessed property value.

Even if that levy is replaced, an additional round of cuts would have to be made, school board president Jeff Mabee said.

Neither recommendation would allow for the restoration of all the recent budget cuts, Zimmerman said.

"Even if we pass a 4- or 5-mill (levy), it doesn't put us back to where we want to be," he said.

"This has to be a first step back," board member Scott Johnson said. "We want to then keep working toward something else."

No matter what happens in November, the board will be faced in 2009 with the possibility of going back to the voters with a tax issue.

A 6.56-mill operating levy, originally passed in 1989 and renewed every five years since, will go off the books at the end of next year without approval from voters in some form, whether renewal or replacement.

Since the issue has been "renewed" rather than "replaced," the collection has been rolled back to its current collection amount of 2.94 mills for residential properties and 5.0 for commercial/industrial properties. It generates about $2.8-million annually.

Zimmerman said the district's long-range financial projections are based on that issue being "replaced."