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City school levy deserves a ‘yes’

Educate, motivate, inspire. Those are the terms used to describe the goals for students in the Steubenville City School District.

Administrators, as well as many volunteers and parents, have been busy as of late in making known the quality of education available in the city school district, and for good reason — a levy needed to help continue to offer this successful education is on the line.

From a top-notch early childhood education and a “Success for All” program for first- through fourth-graders, to an advanced Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics study program for older students, the city school district offers them all. There’s also a myriad of extra-curricular activities such as an outstanding theater program and orchestra, a slew of clubs and organizations and top-rated athletic programs. And there’s even an early college acceleration program for students who want to get a jump on higher education.

All of those factors, as well as teachers who care about students’ success, make Steubenville City School District one of the best in the Ohio Valley.

So city voters have a decision to make on Nov. 8 when they go to the polls. A 4.7-mill levy is on the ballot, and money generated from it would be used for building projects, including four additional rooms at East Garfield, an expanded lunchroom at Harding Middle School and four additional rooms at Pugliese West. Administrators also are planning to put in a monitored school entrance at the high school and Wells Academy, as well as air conditioning for the auditorium, an increased vocational campus and a new roof at the high school, among other projects.

The levy won’t increase taxes, it’s important to note, and while the ballot language will list the 4.7-mill levy as an additional levy, it is in fact a renewal.

Superintendent Melinda Young has best explained how the levy funds will work. “This is not an increase in your taxes. We are asking for voters to approve a 4.7-mill levy that will replace the 4.7-mill levy that will expire at the end of this year,” she said. “The current 4.7-mill levy was approved by city voters in 1990 to pay for the Steubenville High School commons area, new gymnasium, swimming pool and cafeteria.”

And according to Young and other administrators and teachers in the district, the long-standing pledge to city residents is “to provide excellent physical facilities for a quality education for our students, to maintain our facilities to the community for community needs and to maintain our facilities so the community can be proud of our schools.”

We ask that you support Steubenville City Schools on Nov. 8.

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