ok, for those of you that want to know exactly whats going on with the school system and the levy...

first off, history: in 1980 and 1997 middletown city schools passed two levies; these are the only levies in operation and any vote partaining to a levy is merely a vote to continue one of those two (ie, this year's.) when these levys were first passed, it was with a fixed dollar amount that by state law is not allowed to change. also in 1980 were the first plans set to build new buildings (to give an idea of how old that project is.) now, as the economy was very good all through the nineties, the fixed dollar amount was sufficient to pay for all the costs of schooling. however, starting at the beginning of the 2002-03 school year, the cost of maintaining the district was greater than the income of the two levys. therefore the school board decided to dip into the savings of the district and hope that the economy would improve sufficiently that no new levies would be needed. the reason for this decision is that the building plan, now over two decades old, was being voted on in the coming year, and the board didnt want to ask the tax payers to pay for two new levys. however, as the economy grew worse, and the savings continued to deplete, the board started "tightening the belt' by not buying new equipment or books and not hiring new teachers. these kinds of cuts will contunue, even if the levy is passed, as long as the economy does not improve or no new money is given to the district. these cuts will not make any major changes in the system, but the budget is hanging by a thread, and the discontinument of this levy (the 1980 one, and the largest of the two) would send the system into $9.6 million debt. therefore, if it fails, the board must cut enough things to save that 9.6 mil. included in these are all the exta curriculars, the shortened day, and the loss of 85 teachers. the added problem is that since the district would then be operating on state minimum requirements, many students would transfer, further sending the district into debt. the district must then be placed under the control of a state appointed board and middletown would have no control over its system. the state would give us a loan to improve the schools, but one we must somehow pay back, resulting in another levy, probably the biggest in its history

so there you go, the problem in detail. hope it helped, it took long enough to type