Barberton School officials have decided to place an 8.4 mill levy on the May Primary ballot after voters rejected an operating levy late last year.

Superintendent Patricia Cleary says the district needs the extra revenue to erase an operating budget deficit.." We've been losing about $4-million, and so we're deficit spending at this point and this will allow us to even ourselves out for a while." says Cleary.

Cleary tells AkronNewsNow the Barberton district has already implemented layoffs of 50 teachers and other staffers and cut busing back to the minimum to trim expenses. She says if this levy also fails there will be more cuts. " If we don't pass in May there will be quite severe cuts. We have been talking about what they're going to be. We haven't really released that yet, but we will very soon. But even if we do pass this $3-million levy we are still going to be deficit spending by a small amount".

Patricia Cleary says even if this levy is approved there would still be a need for more cuts to balance the budget..