TPS supporters kick off levy renewal campaign

School buses lined up at the Toledo Public Schools bus garage. TPS kicked off a campaign Wednesday seeking voter support for a 5-year, 6.5-mill operating levy.

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Diedra Cattladge addressed an audience of a couple dozen Toledo Public Schools community members at Woodward High School on Wednesday and asked them to support the district’s levy renewal at the ballot box in November.

“It’s the right thing,” she said.

School buses lined up at the Toledo Public Schools bus garage. TPS kicked off a campaign Wednesday seeking voter support for a 5-year, 6.5-mill operating levy.

Ms. Cattladge’s son Denzel Henderson initially wanted to pursue his high school education at a private school, but he changed his mind when he learned how supportive the TPS community is. Now his mom is encouraging the community to give that support right back.

The five-year, 6.5-mill operating levy will generate about $13 million annually. The levy was first approved in 2000 as a three-year measure and was last renewed in 2013.

The renewed levy would continue to cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $178 a year, TPS officials said.

Superintendent Romules Durant also addressed the community Wednesday, standing on Woodward’s football field in a jersey matching the football team members kneeling to his right. He told the audience that TPS is improving early childhood education, increasing enrollment in advanced placement and college credit courses, and handing out more honors diplomas.

“We’re asking you to continue to support that success as a community... by voting for Issue 9, which is not a new tax but allowing us to continue to the momentum that we’ve already started,” he said.

TPS also plans to ask voters to renew two other levies in the November, 2018 elections. Those generate a combined $27 million a year.

This November, voters in the Oregon City school district will also head to the polls to vote on a five-year, 2-mill levy renewal to fund facility improvements.

In Wood County, Rossford Exempted Village Schools has a five-year, 1-mill levy renewal on the ballot, and Bowling Green schools residents will vote on a 37-year, 6-mill levy that would fund building construction, renovation, and equipment.

Contact Sarah Elms at selms@theblade.com, 419-724-6103, or on Twitter @BySarahElms.