The Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s proposed tax increase will appear on November ballots as Issue 49, according to a list of issues from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. 

Even before the number was assigned, levy campaign volunteers started knocking on about 2,000 doors in Wards 1 and 17. 

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So far, residents have been receptive to the levy, but expressed some concerns, said Kurt Richards, a 1st grade teacher at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School and the union vice president who is managing the campaign for Citizens For Our Children’s Future, a political action committee. 

“There’s a concern about raising taxes, and we get that,” Richards said. “There’s also what seems to be a greater concern about stopping or halting the progress that we’ve made over the last 10 years in the Cleveland schools.”

If voters approve the school levy, the second one in four years, Cleveland homeowners would pay about $301 per $100,000 of their home’s appraised value every year for the next 10 years. The levy was certified based on current home values, so even though property values are set to increase in Cuyahoga County, the cost of the levy will remain the same. 

What’s next for the Cleveland schools levy campaign?

Weekly door-knocking will kick-off on Sept. 28 at PJ McIntyre’s Irish Pub on the West Side and Muldoon’s Saloon and Eatery on the East Side. The campaign is also setting up phone banks, so volunteers will call Clevelanders as well. 

That effort is being organized by Citizens For Our Children’s Future, which is recruiting volunteers willing to spend some of their Saturdays talking to voters around Cleveland from late September through Election Day on Nov. 5. 

CMSD CEO Warren Morgan has said that, if the levy fails, the district could have to cut roughly 700 teaching positions. Morgan and Board of Education Chair Sara Elaqad will speak about the levy at the City Club of Cleveland this Friday, Sept. 13. Morgan will return to the City Club on Oct. 1 for his annual state of the schools address. 

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Levy campaign keeps a low profile so far

The levy campaign has won support in the local faith community in early August. Around that time, the levy campaign’s finance report showed the campaign had raised $125,000. 

So far, the campaign has amassed a long list of endorsements from local organizations and community leaders, including city, county and state officials, local pastors and union leaders. The Cleveland Teachers Union has campaigned for the levy at a few community events, including Cleveland’s Labor Day parade. 

Morgan met with Cleveland City Council members in July, garnering cautious support for the levy from most of them.