RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Richmond Heights Schools Superintendent Renee Willis held an online town hall meeting Thursday (Aug. 13), during which she laid out the schools’ finances and spoke of the possible need to ask residents for a levy increase Nov. 3.
Willis said the Richmond Heights Board of Education filed with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections before its Aug. 5 deadline to have a levy placed on the General Election ballot.
But she said that levy could be removed from the ballot, depending on how City Council votes on granting tax increment financing subsidies (TIF) to Belle Oaks developer DealPoint Merrill.
“So what we’re saying is that the final decision as to whether the diamond-encrusted jewel necklace (a phrase she used for maximum generosity to the developer) will be given is actually a decision that lies in the hands of our City Council,” Willis said.
DealPoint Merrill, of Woodland Hills, Calif., is planning a $200 million mixed-use development at Richmond Town Square mall, to include 791 Class A apartment units and new retail. Willis noted that council agreed in December to give DealPoint Merrill 100 percent tax abatement for the first 15 years of the project when the city expanded its community reinvestment area (CRA) to include the mall property.
She said DealPoint is now negotiating TIF terms for years 16 through 30 of the project. If council agrees to a TIF deal, she said it would could cost the school district a great deal of money.
The added Belle Oaks apartments, Willis said, may bring with them more students for the district to teach. But, she said, if many of those children living in the new apartments go to private schools using vouchers, Richmond Heights Schools would lose even more state funding.
To complicate matters, the portion of the mall that is south of the former Sears building, which will make up the second phase of the Belle Oaks development, is located within the South Euclid-Lyndhurst City School District, even though it is located within the city of Richmond Heights.
Willis noted that the second phase would include much more retail than the first phase, a fact that would leave Richmond Heights Schools earning less tax money than South Euclid-Lyndhurst.
Potential school levy
As of now, the Richmond Heights school board is proposing a 5.9-mill operating levy that would bring in about $1 million annually. It would cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 an additional $17 per month.
Willis urged those watching the hour-long town hall to contact their City Council representatives and urge them to deny the Belle Oaks TIF for years 16 through 30.
“Our school district has no vote and no decision-making power in this situation,” Willis said. “However, we will be the ones affected by it for years to come.
“Our City Council can either approve or deny the TIF for the next 15 years, because they’ve already approved the first 15 without input. The ball is in their court, and the developer has made it clear to us (the school district) by saying no for our minuscule ask that could keep a levy off the ballot in November,” Willis said.
That “minuscule ask” had the district reportedly asking for a $6 million lump sum payment, a figure that was later reduced to $3 million -- both of which DealPoint found unacceptable.
Willis told of how changes last summer in the state’s voucher program have increased the number of local students who accept vouchers from a manageable 20 per school year to nearly 100 this year, a 300 percent increase.
When parents opt for vouchers, state funding follows them to private schools and away from public schools. Students are eligible for a voucher when a community’s public school receives a D grade on its state report card, as Richmond Heights Schools and most area districts have.
“This (the voucher system) has devastated our district and it has devastated other districts like ours,” Willis said.
The change allows $6,000 per high school student and $4,650 per elementary school student in voucher money. It is money, Willis said, that goes “directly from the public schools’ coffers without (students) ever having intended to set foot in a public school.”
Willis also noted that the state system for funding schools, which is paid for at 66 percent through property taxes, was declared unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1997. She said the current system favors wealthy ZIP codes and not communities like Richmond Heights, which has less industry than others.
It was in 2017 that Richmond Heights voters were last asked to pass a levy increase. Issue 62, which passed by about 51 percent, was a three-pronged levy that included a bond issue to pay for the 21st Century Learning Center (new high school and middle school in one building), which is set to open in January on the current Richmond Heights High School grounds.
It also included 2.91 mills for permanent improvements and 4.94 mills for operating expenses. The operating portion of the total 12.1-mill levy cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 about $172.90 per year and, like the proposed November increase is projected to do, brought in an additional $1 million in operating funds.
At 5.9 mills, a Nov. 3 passage of a new levy would cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 about $204 more per year.
City response
Mayor David Roche said he watched the town hall. When asked to comment, he said: “The finances are tough on the schools and the city. I think, from my standpoint, I’ve always been supportive of the schools. It’s been tough on any government agencies.”
Roche said the city is projected to see a decrease in revenues in 2020 of more than $2 million. He said he has not thought about going to voters next year to ask for higher taxes.
The mayor said he did not know when council would vote on the TIF matter, but added that DealPoint Merrill’s goal is to complete those negotiations before it begins demolition of the mall, possibly in October.
DealPoint is still in negotiations to purchase the mall, a deal that must also be completed before demolition can take place.
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