JUST IN: Kettering OKs new superintendent contract, may face fall levy
May 18—KETTERING — The next Kettering City Schools superintendent may be tasked with helping pass a tax levy this November.
On the same night the board of education approved a four-year contract for Melinda McCarty-Stewart, it adopted a financial forecast Tuesday night that includes a fall levy recommendation in the face of a $11.1 million deficit in fiscal year 2024.
The current top administrator for Wilmington City Schools will become Kettering's first female superintendent Aug. 1 with an annual base salary of $175,000, replacing Scott Inskeep.
McCarty-Stewart, 50, told the Dayton Daily News she is "excited and honored" to be the board's pick, noting "Kettering has a longstanding history of high achievement and strong community support in providing the best education for all students."
The board also approved 10 transition days for McCarty-Stewart starting today through July 31, when Inskeep is set to retire.
Ohio election records show Aug. 10 is the filing deadline to have local issues on the November ballot, which the five-year forecast by Kettering schools Treasurer Cary Furniss suggests.
The "May forecast update demonstrates the need for an operating levy in November 2022 to maintain current programs and services," it states.
Specifically, Kettering projects expenditures at $117.45 million and revenues at $106.3 million in fiscal year 2024, records show.
It takes about 18 months for a new levy to be fully collected on a fiscal year basis and Kettering has a 24-month supply of cash through this June 30, the forecast states.
Voters in the Kettering district approved an additional 5.99-mill levy in 2018, Montgomery County records show.
That tax was expected to generate about $7.5 million a year in new money and cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 home about $209 more per year, district officials said at the time.
