GETAWAY — The Lawrence County Joint Vocational School District board will wait a bit before deciding when to place a levy in front of the voters again.

Late last week, the Lawrence County Board of Elections de-certified a half-mil permanent improvement levy that was to have been on the May primary ballot because the ballot language was improperly worded. The school board has the option of either having a special election solely for the levy or waiting until November and having the levy on the general election ballot.

“We’re going to look at how to proceed and we may make a decision by the end of next month,” Collins Career Center Superintendent Steve Dodgion said. “We discussed it at length and we decided we need to take a deep breath and evaluate how we need to proceed.”

A special election would cost approximately $25,000, Dodgion said.

School officials contend they were given wrong information by the board of elections office and incorrectly listed the levy as a renewal levy. It should have been called a new, or additional levy because the old levy expired in January. Elections officials contend they do not give legal advice.

The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office found the mistake and notified local elections officials the levy could not be on the May ballot as worded.

By the time school officials had been notified, it was too late to make the necessary changes and have the levy resubmitted for the primary election.