ALBANY, Ohio — The Alexander Local School District’s proposed 0.75% earned income tax levy failed by just 21 votes on Tuesday, according to unofficial election night results from the Athens, Meigs and Vinton county boards of elections. A total of 2,428 voters rejected the measure and 2,407 supported it, the Athens County Independent and The Athens Messenger both reported.
The five-year levy was the district’s latest attempt to close a $1.5 million budget shortfall. Rather than return to voters with the 1% income tax the district had relied on before, Alexander lowered its ask by a quarter of a percentage point this cycle, according to the Athens County Independent. The measure still fell short, leaving a district that spans parts of three counties to decide how much more it will have to cut.
The split among those counties explains the result. Voters in Athens County, where the district’s campus sits near Albany, approved the levy — the Athens County portion went 2,139 votes in favor to 2,072 against, according to unofficial Athens County results reported by The Athens Messenger. But the measure failed with voters in the district’s portions of Meigs and Vinton counties, and those votes were enough to overcome the Athens County margin, the Independent reported.
District leaders had warned for months that a defeat would mean reductions. William Hampton, Alexander’s superintendent since 2022, told the Athens County Independent in September that school funding has remained stagnant for decades while the district faces its $1.5 million deficit, and that he expected “some significant reductions” if the tax measure failed. “We’re doing everything we can to be efficient and to be good stewards of the community’s money,” Hampton told the Independent in September.
In October, Hampton told The Athens Messenger the district is in an unsustainable financial situation. According to The Messenger’s reporting before the election, a failed levy would force cuts during the 2027-28 school year that could include eliminating field trips, reducing busing, trimming club and athletic options, charging annual technology fees and raising athletic and club fees. The Messenger also reported that some staff reductions during the current 2026-27 school year were expected either way, as the district worked to save an additional $642,725.
None of this is new territory for Alexander. Voters rejected a 1% income tax levy five times between late 2016 and 2019 before finally passing it in 2019 — by a single vote, according to the Athens County Independent’s September reporting on this year’s levy campaign.
That 2019 levy did not hold. Voters rejected efforts to renew the 1% tax in both 2023 and 2024, the Independent reported, and the district has shed dozens of staff positions as deficits mounted. Hampton told the Independent that funding has remained essentially stagnant for nearly 20 years while costs kept rising — the squeeze behind the current shortfall.
The campaign also laid bare the pressures on both sides. Alexander Board of Education President Stephen Crook supported the levy, but he acknowledged to the Independent that the rising cost of living shapes how people vote. Crook cautioned, in the Independent’s reporting, that another 10 to 15 positions could be cut if the levy failed.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on. What is known: the unofficial count from all three county boards stands at 2,428 against and 2,407 for, a 21-vote margin; Athens County voters said yes while the district’s Meigs and Vinton county voters said no; and the levy would have run for five years at 0.75% on earned income. What is still waiting: the certified totals. Results remain unofficial until the three boards of elections complete their official canvasses, including any remaining ballots still to be tallied, and a margin this small means the certified numbers — and any next procedural step available to the district — matter more than they would in an ordinary levy defeat.
For families in Albany, Alexander Township and the district’s corners of Meigs and Vinton counties, the immediate question is what the school board does with its campaign warnings. The reductions Hampton described to The Athens Messenger were tied to the 2027-28 school year, which gives the board time to deliberate in public — but students, bus riders and families paying activity fees will be watching its winter and spring meetings for decisions on transportation, field trips, clubs and athletics.
The district also has to decide whether Tuesday’s answer is final. Alexander’s history shows a board that has returned to voters repeatedly — five tries before the 2019 passage, renewal attempts in 2023 and 2024, and a smaller ask this year. A 21-vote loss, with its home county voting yes, could encourage supporters to try again, or push the board toward absorbing the full round of cuts first. District officials had not announced a next step in the reports published Wednesday.
What happens next starts with certification: the Athens, Meigs and Vinton county boards of elections will certify their results later this month, making the 21-vote outcome official or revising it. After that, attention turns to the Alexander Board of Education, which must translate a $1.5 million shortfall into a concrete plan — which positions, programs and services are reduced, and on what timeline. NewsForce247 will follow the board’s first post-election meeting and the certified counts from all three counties.
Photo: Vbofficial, CC BY-SA 3.0