One of the main reasons is the dissolving away of federal and state COVID-19 relief monies given to Hamilton — and all other Ohio public school systems — starting in 2020 to help offset the costs of operating during the pandemic.
The projected budget shortfall will increase to $13.8 million in 2025 and then 19.7 million in 2026.
Hamilton’s annual operating budget is about $98 million.
Hancock said the incalculable variables that are part of every five-year forecast, which is required of school districts each May and November, are future state, biennium budgets and their levels of school funding for local districts.
He told the school board no one knows “what’s going to happen in the next biennium budget,” which state legislators will begin planning in the winter for the budget’s June 30, 2023 deadline for the Ohio spending plan.
“About January or February next year, things will get really interesting,” said Hancock.
The board approved Hancock’s five-year forecast by a 4-0 vote with member Steve Isgro absent from the meeting.
The district’s projection also showed Hamilton’s school enrollment, which now is about 9,000 students, is predicted to remain stable through 2027.
Hamilton Schools Superintendent Mike Holbrook offered a summary on the just-completed school year and among successes he touted the city schools’ experiment with two classroom teachers in kindergarten and early elementary grades.
The program is largely funded by COVID-19 relief funds and at least one board member expressed concerns about the fading assistance monies impacting the extra teacher program.
Hamilton Board of Education Vice President Margaret Baker echoed Holbrook in crediting the extra teachers as producing positive results this school year.
“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of success. So we will do everything we can to continue that experiment because it seems to have done well,” said Baker.
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