Robert A. Hancock, Treasurer, Hamilton City School District: The governor’s proposed budget contains a variety of items that could prove helpful. All districts will receive the revenue generated by $250,000 valuation per pupil. Districts with low valuation per pupil and low per capita income will receive additional dollars. Special Education will be fully funded. Unnecessary state mandates will be removed. Funds will be available for innovative programs. There will be additional preschool funding. We do have concerns about the expansion of the voucher program which will provide additional state funds to private schools. We look forward to the release of the district specific calculations which are anticipated to be available during the first week of February. At this time we do not have the details needed to assess the actual financial impact of the proposed state budget.

Karen Mantia, Superintendent, Lakota Local School District: Overall, the plan bases funding on the level of income and wealth distribution, but there are details yet to come so we will learn more as we go on. The plan stresses innovation and there were indications that there could be some grant funding that may be coming down the pike. Vocational funding will be increased to give more emphasis on students being prepared to enter the job market. The jury is still out on much of it because we haven’t seen all of the details of it. One good thing is that the tangible property tax is not going away as we thought it would. We’re really grateful for that because it means we will still be collecting about $3 million a year that we thought we would not be getting. The emphasis on innovation is exciting as we find creative ways to prepare kids for their future. The governor was short on details on some areas and we need to learn more about his plans for school choice and vouchers, about funding for students with disabilities and English as a Second Language. I’d like to see what the details of these are and am looking forward to hearing more.

Doug Lantz, Superintendent, Edgewood Local School District: From everything I heard I think Gov. Kasich hit a home run. I was extremely impressed. He opened by saying students come first. It was refreshing to hear a governor talk about the kids as opposed to the adults. I think a lot of superintendents came in with negative thoughts because the rumors were there were going to be cuts. But he disarmed everybody right away by saying that for the first two years no districts will lose any funding and that there will be various incentives tied to student achievement and areas where funding has been cut in the past. It was also refreshing to know this plan is paid for unlike the previous governor. He made it clear that education was a priority, particularly public education. A lot of people feared we were going to hear all about charter schools and community schools. I thought it was a very positive and very good message.

Larry Hook, Superintendent, Carlisle Local School District: It was all positive. I was skeptical going in and left feeling very positive. When Gov. Kasich told the superintendents that most of them would not be seeing any reductions in state aid, that was good news for Carlisle which has been in reduction mode for the past five years. On the surface, it sounded pretty good, but we’ll know more when the details and the dollar amounts for each district are released next week. Because the district has a significant number of low-income families, the district may benefit from the new funding model and receive additional state aid.