LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- There’s nothing unique about seeing green on St. Patrick’s Day. However, this year, with the presidential primary election day falling on the holiday, Lakewood voters are being asked to support a different kind of green.

Lakewood City Schools’ proposed 3.9-mill levy and 1-mill permanent improvement levy involves the expiration of current district debt.

If approved, Issue 28 will slightly raise taxes. Currently, residents are paying $143 a month on a home valued at $100,000. If passed, the new levy would increase what those homeowners are paying by $1.75 a month.

The new levy funds would be used to expand preschool and academic programming, retain and recruit professional staff, monitor district facilities and bolster student mental health services.

“What I’m hearing to this point is the community seems to be excited about keeping the schools strong and moving forward,” Superintendent Michael J. Barnes said.

“Issue 28 provides more counseling, mental health and health services support for our students, continues to recruit and retain high-quality staff, expands STEM, ensures our technology and our materials are up to date, and makes sure that we’re maintaining our capital assets," he said.

After spending the last nearly two months promoting the passage of Issue 28 in the community, the superintendent said that so far, the district hasn’t experienced much pushback.

“To this point, there have been great conversations with highly engaged residents asking great questions,” Barnes said. “We’ve been able to accomplish what we’ve set out to do -- educate the community about why Issue 28 is important.”

While Barnes is “cautiously optimistic” about voters passing Issue 28, if the residents don’t agree, they can expect to see the tax increase back on the fall ballot.

“We don’t want to cut our programming and experiences for kids,” Barnes said. “If we’re not successful on March 17, we’ll have to regroup. I don’t want to predict anything now. There are a lot of variables that will come into play, but desiring to remain strong as a PreK-12 community is our primary focus.”

Read more news from the Sun Post Herald.