By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Teachers on the chopping block can breathe a sigh of relief. The bands will play on. The athletes will again take the field. The thespians will take a bow at the end of performances.
Voters rallied around Bowling Green City Schools – with 71% saying they want students here to have a well-rounded education and extracurricular experiences at their schools.
The unofficial vote count Tuesday evening was 4,597 in favor to 1,911 opposed.
“Our community came together,” BG Superintendent Ted Haselman said. “They rallied around our schools.”
The victory follows a defeat last November of a 0.75% income tax – losing that time by 108 votes.
Following that loss district leaders saw two options – cut the budget by $2.6 million or pass a 0.75% income tax in May. So the Bowling Green Board of Education decided to try again. This time, the district listed the 29 positions, athletics and extracurriculars that would be lost if the operating levy failed again.
Then they went to work to show voters exactly what was at risk.
“We tried our best to provide the information voters needed,” Haselman said. And the voters seemed to grasp the district’s dire need for operating funds.
“They resoundingly gave us approval. They want us to continue the excellence” the district is known for, he said. “Our community understood the ramifications of a loss to the students, staff and community.”
Haselman took some heat for listing the potential cuts to people and programs, with critics accusing him of making threats. But Tuesday evening, Haselman said he had prepared two letters to send out to the community – one thanking voters for support, and the other explaining how the cuts would be implemented.
“It was not a threat. I was not bluffing,” he said. “We’ve tried to be as transparent as possible with our community.”
Now with the operating levy approved, Haselman said full focus can be put on the building of the new high school.
“This is a huge weight lifted off our shoulders. This is a huge win for Bowling Green City Schools students,” he said.
School board President Norm Geer said the victory was a statement from district voters that they did not want the success of the schools to stall or go backwards.
“Everybody took ownership of it,” he said of the levy passage. “The effort of the community was overwhelming. They felt that supporting public education was a good thing for our community.”
Geer also credited district efforts at transparency for the win. “Nobody could say they didn’t have the information.”
Geer believes the success of the levy speaks volumes to students.
“It’s a way of showing who we are to our children, and how much we value them,” he said.
“I’m relieved. I’m proud of everybody that worked for this,” Geer said.
Jeff Dennis, a member of BG Families for Schools and of BG City Council, said the community rose to the challenge and took active roles in saving the district from drastic cuts.
“We really saw a lot of people who were very eager to get engaged,” Dennis said.
The grassroots BG Families for Schools group was pleasantly surprised to see students take their own initiative to make their voices heard. Some wrote letters to editors, some printed out their own letterhead and wrote testimonials about school – then went door-to-door in their neighborhoods.
“That was completely organic and unprompted,” Dennis said. “That was a level of support we did not see last year.”
Dennis believes the district’s decision to be specific about exactly what was at risk if the levy failed was a key factor in the levy’s success this second time around.
“This is what’s at stake,” voters were told. “This was really our opportunity – how do we want our schools to look? How do we want our community to look,” Dennis recalled Haselman telling voters on every possible occasion.
That seemed to resonate.
“I think that choice is pretty clear,” Dennis said of the victory.
“This is an exciting time to be a Bobcat,” he added.
It also helped, he surmised, that entities within the community joined the campaign. Leaders of the city, Bowling Green State University, Chamber of Commerce, and Realtors spoke openly about the importance of passing the levy.
The value of investing in schools is seen far beyond the school walls.
“This is a driver of economic development for our community,” Dennis said. “It’s about attracting younger families, new businesses.”
Members of the BG Families for Schools group made their rounds speaking to community organizations about the need for the levy and the ramifications if it failed. Dennis recalled one visit to the Kiwanis Club, where it was explained that the high school cafeteria would no longer be available for the club’s pancake breakfast fundraisers, and the Performing Arts Center would not be available to the Community Band.
“We connected with a lot of folks,” Dennis said.
Also different this election, were steps taken by the board to make the levy more palatable to some voters. For those who believe that no levy should be for a continuing period of time, the board agreed to limit the levy to five years. The board decided to stick with an income tax request, since district property taxes went up when voters approved the building of a new high school.
For those who wanted the district to use its pipeline tax revenue for operating expenses, rather than for building maintenance costs, the board agreed to shift $1 million of the pipeline money from building maintenance into operating funds. And for those who have wanted more transparency of district finances, Treasurer Matt Feasel has been making the district’s monthly check register available for public viewing.
Following is the list of positions and programs that were on the chopping block for the next school year (2025-2026), if the levy didn’t pass:
Staffing/positions eliminations:
- Assistant mechanic
- Athletic director
- Athletic secretary
- Bus drivers (7) (creating additional fuel savings)
- Crossing guards
- Custodians (2)
- District communication director
- Human resources generalist
- Inventory control/courier position
- Nurses (3)
- Performing Arts Center manager
- Student wellness coordinator
Teachers
- District wide music
- Elementary (4)
- High School English
- Middle School business education
- Gifted education
Program eliminations and reductions
- Extra-curricular activities (athletics, the arts – music and drama, clubs, yearbook, National Honor Society, etc.), and all athletic and non-athletic supplemental contracts eliminated
- District Gifted program
- District elementary orchestra program and reduced secondary music course options
- Contracted district mental health therapists and case managers
- No field trips or alternative educational opportunities district wide including fifth grade camp
- All buildings will be shut down at the end of the school day to outside entities to save on utilities and personnel costs (Girl/Boy Scouts, rec athletics, etc.)
Transportation reductions
District transportation would have been limited to the following:
- Only transport students in grades PK-8 who reside more than two miles from school (no transportation within a two-mile radius of schools, both public and private/parochial)
- No high school student transportation provided except as required by law (Penta Career Center students: school-to-school only; no home pickup or drop off)
- With the reduced number of bus drivers, the size of each route will be significantly larger resulting in a substantial increase to student travel time on bus to and from school (up to 1.5 hours)
- Due to middle school students being transported with elementary students, the middle school day start and end time will move to 8:20 a.m. to 3:02 p.m.
(Absentee ballots are included in the unofficial results, but not provisional ballots. Valid provisional ballots will be included in the official count to be held no later than 21 days after the election.)
