By GAGE VOTA

Times Leader Staff Writer

MORRISTOWN — “We’re asking for help,” Union Local School District Superintendent Zac Shutler said when speaking about the 2-mill permanent improvement levy that will be on the ballot in November’s upcoming election.

If approved, the new levy will only be able to be spent to fix the current structural problems the school is facing.

Built in 1998, Union Local High School has begun to have issues that, if not addressed, will become a major problem in the incoming years.

“There haven’t been any upgrades in over 30-plus years here,” Shutler said. “We have to fix the pipes, we have to fix the electrical outlets, the roofs are leaking, the sidewalks need fixing. I mean, these are things that are disrupting the school day, so we have to do everything in our power to make sure the kids aren’t disrupted throughout the day.”

School treasurer and varsity football coach Bernie Thompson is a 2011 graduate of the school. His class was the first in the building’s history to complete kindergarten through senior year which is something he doesn’t take lightly.

“For me, personally, the school means a lot. And now we’re in a situation where we’ve had a lot of good people come before Zac [Shutler] and I, for the past 20 years, doing their part and making sure they had this building in the best possible position for the kids to succeed academically,” Thompson said. “Now for me to be in this position, as a UL grad and as someone who this community means a lot to personally, I’m very grateful and just want to do my part.”

He added that both he and Shutler believe that the levy will be what’s best for the student body.

Both Shutler and Thompson said that they understand that asking for the community to vote in favor of a new levy is something that has historically been a challenge for the school district.

“We’re asking for people in the community’s help, and we hope that it’s a win-win, because we know that strong schools equal strong communities,” Shutler said. “It helps having students that graduate here stay in Belmont County, hopefully specifically in the district of Union Local.”

He added that the last permanent improvement money that was approved for Union Local was passed in 1993, which was a five-year permanent improvement levy that expired in 1998.

“It ran for a couple years after that, and then was defeated. So the Union Local school district has not collected any permanent improvement money since 1998,” Shutler said.

If a standard home is priced at $150,900 the new levy would see residents pay an annual cost of $105.63. But if a house is priced at $150,900 and the home owners are 65 years or older they would pay an annual cost of $87.29.

Shutler said that he knows it isn’t easy to ask residents to pay more annually when he knows many residents within the community are struggling financially. He added that he believes the levy will secure the infrastructure for Union Local is a viable option for kids for the next year 10 to 20 years.

Shutler said that if the levy does not pass then the district is going to have to make some difficult decisions in the near future.

“The next plan would be to run the levy again in the spring. Hopefully we can narrow the gap if it should fail,” Shutler said. “If the levy wouldn’t pass in the spring, I think we would have to start making some hard decisions where we’d have to look at not just staffing, but student programs and transportation.”

He added that when you look at what the cost is to repair the HVAC units, and what the cost is to repair the roofs and what the cost is to repair the sidewalks and the plumbing the district doesn’t have enough money in its general account to take out a loan.

“That’s what the levy would provide. It would generate about $800,000 per year, and that money could be leveraged into low-interest loans that are designed for government entities like a school. This isn’t just a magic solution where we wave a wand,” Shutler said. “We’re talking about years of projects that we can slowly do with a levy.”

He added that the district currently takes $20 million per year to operate. He believes that if the levy were to pass it would allow the district to know that it would have that money coming in, and knowing that it has that money would allow it to leverage the funds into low interest rate loans that are designed for government entities that could be paid off over the course of time.

“I know somebody made the comment, if something breaks in your house, you just fix it. If you have the money to fix it. I mean, there are a lot of families in this district and across Belmont county that, yeah, that sounds like a great solution but I can empathize with those families in a similar spot that can’t just go and fix it,” Shutler said. “We’re duct taping it, we’re doing whatever we can to make the HVAC units run and to make sure the roof doesn’t leak. But putting $5,000 into the roof just to make sure it doesn’t leak for the month of November isn’t a great use of money.”