Gov. John Kasich plans to present his long-promised, long-awaited school funding model at the end of the month, but he and his staff members are keeping quiet about details.

During the past year, Kasich has hinted at how the state will allocate billions of dollars to Ohio’s 3,900 schools.

He has said money should follow students and go toward their individual needs and should be spent more in the classroom rather than on administrative and overhead costs. He says funding should be based more on outcomes, not just the number of students going in, and high-performing schools and teachers should be rewarded.

“We’re waiting on pins and needles,” said Kelley Thorpe, treasurer of Middletown City Schools. “I’m trying real hard not to get panicked over any potential losses in funding.”

Kasich said in a speech earlier this month he hopes the education policies he suggests will encourage school districts to put children ahead of adult interests. A Kasich spokesman confirmed the proposals will be unveiled Thursday, a few days before presenting the state’s two-year budget.

“You don’t distribute resources on the basis of who’s going to like you or who’s not,” Kasich said. “You distribute the resources on the basis of making sure that every child in our state has the opportunity to compete with every other child in this state.”

The funding model likely won’t include an influx of new money into districts strapped for cash and asking taxpayers for help. The state cut $1.8 billion from public schools in the last two-year budget. Schools also lost funding from the phase out of the tangible personal property tax and expiration of stimulus dollars from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Robert Hancock, treasurer of Hamilton City Schools, said state dollars to the district have been reduced by a cumulative $11.4 million in the past four years — but that was offset by receiving $9.7 million in stimulus funds across three years. Hancock said after receiving $2.7 million in stimulus funds last year, there are no stimulus dollars this year.

“The Governor and legislature can design whatever school funding model they desire but if it doesn’t have additional funding that replaces revenues lost over the past few years it will only lead to additional expenditure reductions, programmatic reductions, service level reductions and everybody’s favorite — more school tax levies to replace dollars lost from state funding,” Hancock said.

The Hamilton City School District announced last year its intent to place an operating levy on the November ballot. Hancock said the district has not received additional operating millage since 1993.

“Rarely will you find a school district that goes 20 years between operating levies,” Hancock said.

The Middletown City School District has recorded a $7 million drop in state funding over the past seven years — from $72 million to $65 million, Thorpe said. Thorpe added that she’s been keeping a close eye on the fiscal cliff and impacts to federal programs that could result.

“We’re starting budget discussions next week, so I’m glad (Kasich’s) releasing the funding model,” Thorpe said. “Hopefully we’ll get preliminary projections from the Ohio Department of Education shortly after.”

The Middletown school board is expected to vote Jan. 28 on whether it will place a facilities bond issue on the May ballot. If approved, the bond issue would help fund a $55 million project to build a new middle school and renovate the high school.

Joan Powell, Lakota school board president, said the model for school funding used to be fairly simple, with a certain amount of money given per student and year-to-year fluctuations based on enrollment. She said now the district can’t even safely project what school funding will be in as short as six months.

“What’s been sad is the funding of education is a political football,” Powell said, based on who is governor that term. “It’s been a pendulum that swings back and forth, and what everyone will recognize is we need an equilibrium.”

A number of revenue sources — making up the total state funding received by a district — have been slashed or are being phased out. The elimination of the tangible personal property tax has lead to Lakota’s share of TPP tax being slashed from $16.6 million in 2007; to $9 million in 2011; down to $3.1 million this year.

Powell said a “happy, middle ground” could possibly be found by using a non-partisan group to establish certain policies that wouldn’t change from one administration to the next.

Kasich isn’t the first governor to try his hand at crafting a new formula after the 1997 Ohio Supreme Court decision finding the state’s funding model “fails to provide for a thorough and efficient system of common schools” as required by the Ohio Constitution. The court ordered a complete overhaul of the system in 12 months, but later admitted an adequate and equitable funding method would take some time.

“The DeRolph decision may be right but it’s certainly hurt Lakota,” Powell said. “Districts without the property wealth of others have a difficult time paying for education and that has pushed more resources to districts in need. Over the years, all those components have hurt Lakota because we don’t qualify.”

During the past decade, the Monroe Local School District — formed in 2002 — has recorded a 6 percent drop in state funding, said Phil Cagwin, interim superintendent. In 2002, Monroe received 33 percent of its total revenue from the state. That rate will drop to 26 percent this year.

“You just get less money from the state and in every district’s case you’ve got to find that elsewhere,” Cagwin said, often from taxpayers.

Cagwin, who served 10 years as superintendent of the Talawanda School District, said for years now the governor and state legislature has felt that local districts should increasingly be funded from local constituents.

Voters in Monroe approved a 7.05-mill emergency operating tax levy in November that will generate $2.5 million per year over the next five years. The measure came after the district fell into fiscal emergency last May and had to borrow $2.2 million from the state in order to pay off its operating debt.

The district has been making monthly loan repayments of more than $100,000 to the state.

“I can’t imagine any districts are thinking of growing programs, but just trying to maintain,” Cagwin said.