GRAHAM: IF MAY 8 LEVY FAILS

Some time ago, I unveiled a plan for the future at Graham Local Schools. Graham 2020 is an
idea that was born months before the 2016-17 school year began, but it continued to evolve
and is a strategy for the long-term success of our district. Right now, all of this is now on hold
and indefinitely.

We know that our schools are falling further behind. Previous budget and staff cuts have
proven difficult to overcome. In fact, when the district chopped $2.35 million from the budget
in 2011-12, it is a slide from which we have never recovered. Test scores have never risen to the
same levels and we simply do not have what we need for students right now. More cuts would
worsen things both educationally and financially for our schools.

That is why the Board of Education recently voted to return to the ballot with the same modest
1% earned income tax levy we introduced last fall. There is no “wiggle room” in most school
budgets, especially those that are run as leanly as ours has been over the past several years.

We pay less than almost every district in our seven-county area when it comes to school taxes.
Even with the passage of the May 8 ballot issue we would still be among the lowest.

Be looking for information in the coming weeks and months. The board recently approved a list
of cuts that will be made if the levy does not pass. These cuts include…<list some>>.

Talking about cuts is never easy and making them is even harder, especially when we are
already behind educationally. In informing you now, we are being open and honest about the
seriousness of what we are facing and about what will occur if the May 8 levy fails.

Please gather information ahead of the May 8 Election Day and become informed on what we
can do if the levy passes, as well as what will happen if it doesn’t. We can determine what the
future looks like for our students at the ballot box.