The Pickerington Local Schools' income tax levy failed on Tuesday, triggering immediate cuts to extracurricular activities.
Superintendent Charles Smialek said Pickerington schools have immediately suspended all extracurricular activities below the varsity level. This includes activities such as the National Honor Society and student council.
“We were at least able to protect the classroom experience in this round of reductions, but we know that this summer we would not be able to do that,” Smialek said. “We're going to start putting our heads together and collaborate with our principals and our leadership teams to start doing the work of what other reductions are necessary.”
Smialek also said that the only staff reductions so far are positions exclusively tied to extracurricular activities. However, the district will decide on staff cuts in the summer. Pickerington’s early projection of what cuts would look like included 24 high school teachers across the district’s two high schools and 17 middle school teachers across the district’s two middle schools.
“We're re-examining that. Those aren't final numbers. We're trying to see how we can be strategic in terms of spreading the pain a little bit,” Smialek said. “We want to make sure we're fair and we're not hammering one age group of students any heavier than we're getting after the others.”
As for why the levy failed, Smialek said he doesn’t think it’s necessarily an indictment of Pickerington schools. In general, Ohioans tended to reject levies and bond issues on their ballots.
“I think if you grab 10 people off the street right now, you'd probably get about five or six different major foci. I think probably the biggest would be affordability,” said Smialek. “We really are in a tough environment. Gas prices continue to be high. Inflation continues to be higher. So when we're going and asking for more, I mean, we're definitely meeting up against the folks who are giving everything they can.”
In recent years, support and funding for public education has waned at the Statehouse. However, with Dr. Amy Acton as the governor-elect, Smialek has some hope that efforts like the Fair School Funding Act may have another chance.
“There's reasons to be optimistic. Dr. Acton has spoken highly of public education, so certainly that's the bright light for us,” he said. “But, again, she's also working with a pretty conservative legislature that hasn't necessarily been all that friendly to public education.”
Smialek said the district will look at another levy for May’s ballot, but even if it passes, it won’t prevent more cuts from happening.
