Mentor faces challenging path on school levy as local discourse again rages

On Mentor’s Nov. 3 ballot is a smaller school operating levy and a familiar fight over what Mentor Schools spends. Voters will decide Nov. 3, 2026, whether to approve a five-year operating levy of 3.5 mills. For a Mentor home with a county auditor market value of $200,000, approval would add about $246 a year to the tax bill.

The levy is estimated to cost homeowners $123 a year for each $100,000 in county auditor market value. That would be about $369 annually for a home valued at $300,000.

The reduced request follows voters’ rejection of a larger levy in May and comes amid renewed arguments over district spending. It is expected to collect about $9.6 million a year for the general operating budget. Mentor Schools says the money is needed to maintain current services and limit another round of cuts.

A smaller levy

On May 5, voters rejected a five-year, 4.9-mill operating levy that would have collected about $13.5 million annually. The measure received 46.02% support and 53.98% opposition, according to official Lake County Board of Elections results.

The November request is 3.5 mills and would raise about $3.9 million less each year than the May proposal.

Mentor Schools has tied the smaller request to $6.6 million in reductions already made for the 2026-27 school year and another savings target for 2027-28.

Changes for students

After the May defeat, Mentor Schools implemented the $6.6 million in reductions for this school year.

For 2027-28, the district has committed to another $3.3 million in reductions, potentially through school consolidation, further staffing cuts or both.

Mentor Schools Superintendent Craig Heath has described the needed savings as a range. “The whole reason we're doing this is to be able to save that $3.3 to $3.5 million that we need beginning in the '27-'28 school year,” Heath said.

For families, the clearest consolidation concepts under consideration would change grade configurations and could move eighth-graders to Mentor High School. The district was seeking public input in August before choosing a final closure plan.

Passage would provide the projected $9.6 million a year that Mentor Schools says it needs to maintain current services and limit additional cuts. It would not automatically end the building discussion: consolidation planning was continuing regardless of the November result.

The spending dispute

Whether that smaller price wins over voters may depend partly on the continuing argument over whether Mentor Schools has done enough to reduce its own expenses. One disputed cost is a retirement benefit for administrators.

Under the district’s 2025-2028 administrative-benefits policy, the school board pays the employee retirement-contribution rate as a fringe benefit for eligible administrators covered by STRS Ohio or SERS.

For STRS Ohio, the employee and employer contribution rates are each 14% of compensation. The 28% figure raised during the levy debate combines the district’s mandatory 14% employer contribution with its payment of an administrator’s 14% employee share. The disputed benefit is the employee-share payment, not the full 28%.

Mentor Schools Chief Financial Officer Bill Wade said ending the benefit would save the general fund in the low $600,000s each year. Four administrators are paid from outside the general fund, so ending the benefit for those positions would not produce general-fund savings.

That puts the benefit in context as one disputed expense, not the full explanation for the district’s financial problem: potential savings in the low $600,000s compared with a $3.3 million reduction target for 2027-28 and a levy expected to raise about $9.6 million annually.

What happens next

Election Day is Nov. 3. If approved, the levy would commence in 2026 and first appear as a tax due in calendar year 2027.

If voters reject it, Mentor Schools would move ahead without the projected $9.6 million in new annual operating revenue it says is needed to maintain current services and limit further cuts. Its next identified target is $3.3 million in reductions for 2027-28, with consolidation and additional staffing cuts among the options.