Levy Information
Welcome to the BBHCSD Levy Information Hub
Understanding School Funding and Levies
The Brecksville Broadview Heights City School District is incredibly proud of our tradition of excellence. That tradition is built directly on the foundation of our community's unwavering support. Because our district relies heavily on local funding for the vast majority of our revenue, your investment is what makes our students' success possible.
We do not take this partnership for granted. Our Board of Education and district leadership are committed to absolute transparency, fiscal responsibility, and treating your precious tax dollars with the utmost respect. We created this page to help our community better understand how public schools are funded in Ohio, the types of levies we utilize, and how those funds are strictly managed.
How Ohio Property Taxes Work: The Fixed Revenue Rule
One of the most common misconceptions about school funding in Ohio is that when property values go up, the school district automatically gets a windfall of new money. This is actually not the case. By Ohio law, when voters pass a school levy, they are voting to generate a specific dollar amount for the district. Once that levy passes, the amount of money the district collects from it is locked in place.
If overall property valuations in our community increase, the tax rate (called effective mills) is mathematically reduced so the levy continues to collect the exact same dollar amount it did when it was first passed. Simply put, as property values rise, the effective tax rate drops. This ensures the school district does not collect additional money just because homes are worth more.
The Three Types of Levies We Use
To manage the district's finances responsibly, we use three distinct types of funding mechanisms. These function a lot like a household budget.
The Checking Account
1. Operating Levies
Operating funds pay for the daily operations of our schools. This includes the salaries and benefits of our teachers and staff, utilities, educational supplies, transportation, and daily maintenance.
BBHCSD Status: Currently, all of our operating levies in BBHCSD are continuing levies. Because of the Ohio law mentioned above, the revenue from these levies remains flat even as inflation and operational costs increase over time.
The Home Maintenance Account
2. Permanent Improvement
By law, Permanent Improvement funds cannot be used for salaries or daily operating expenses. They are strictly restricted to assets and improvements that have an estimated lifespan of five years or more. This includes things like purchasing school buses, replacing roofs, updating technology infrastructure, and repaving parking lots.
BBHCSD Status: We currently utilize two Permanent Improvement levies to keep our facilities safe, updated, and running efficiently without draining our daily operating budget.
The Mortgage
3. Bond Levies
When a district needs to build a new facility or execute massive renovations that cannot be covered by a Permanent Improvement levy, they use a Bond Levy. This is exactly like taking out a mortgage to buy a house. The voters approve the district to borrow a specific amount of money upfront, and the property tax pays back that specific debt over a set number of years. Once the debt is paid off, the tax goes away.
BBHCSD Status: In 2018, our community generously supported a bond levy that funded the construction of our beautiful, consolidated PreK through 5th grade elementary school. This bond also provided the necessary funding to complete vital repairs and modern upgrades across the rest of our campus footprint.