The Boardman Board of Education met tonight to decide on placing a tax renewal on the May ballot.

Board members approved the renewal for the upcoming ballot and will move forward with a 5.9-mill levy that would fund the district's daily operating costs for five years.

Since the board approved the resolution, the issue will go before voters on May 5. The Mahoning County Auditor calculates that the tax would collect approximately $4.27 million per year. For a home with a market value of $100,000, the cost is $101 annually.

"It's a levy that we've had in place in 1996, so it's money we've counted on for the last 30 years," Chris Neifer, superintendent of Boardman Local Schools, said. 

The levy was originally introduced in November 2025 as a continuing levy, meaning it would remain in effect indefinitely, but it was voted against. 

"We're going back to the taxpayers again, in hopes that it'll pass this time," Neifer said. "The feedback we got from our constituents was that it probably would have passed if it was just a plain renewal."

Neifer stated that 10% of the operating budget was lost for the year in the state's budget and that the renewal would help to continue the programming currently in place for students.

The levy is a renewal of a tax that voters originally approved in 2020. Because it is a renewal, it would maintain the current tax rate rather than increasing it. The funds from the levy are used for "current expenses," which generally include items such as supplies, building utilities and staff pay.

The district must submit the final paperwork to the Mahoning County Board of Elections by Wednesday to meet the deadline for the spring election. If the renewal passes in May, the district would start receiving those funds in 2027.