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Poorer school districts that felt shortchanged by education policies previously proposed by Gov. John Kasich are breathing a sigh of relief at new policies released this week, while other better off districts that would see funding reductions are taking a “wait and see” approach.
In the first year (2015-16) of Kasich’s budget plan, 287 school districts would receive funding increases and 323 districts would see decreases, according to Aaron Rausch, director of budget and school funding for the Ohio Department of Education. The next year, it would be 320 districts up and 290 down.
More than two-thirds of Butler County public school districts would see higher state funding over the next two years if Kasich’s budget proposal is approved intact by the state legislature.
That’s a higher ratio than statewide, as only 49 percent of Ohio’s 610 school districts are projected to see increases from this year to 2016-17.
Taking the largest hit among county school districts would be Lakota Local School District, which will lose a total of $5.9 million over the next two fiscal years, an 11.7 percent reduction over the course of two fiscal years, according to a Journal-News analysis of statistics released by the state Office of Management and Budget.
Lakota schools Treasurer Jenni Logan stressed that it is “very early” in the state budget process and officials do not have the backup documents to show how the governor’s recommended amounts were calculated, but, it would be $4 million less than the district had forecasted for 2016 and $5.3 million less than it forecasted for 2017.
“This is why we need to be involved in the legislative process early on to make sure the impact to our district and our community is understood,” Logan said. “To put things into perspective, if the governor’s proposal stands as is, that’s like losing 2 mills of revenue for this district.”
Logan said it is “disheartening” to see Kasich’s proposal with a drastically different message than his budget proposal of two years ago.
“That message was no district would receive less,” she said. “That’s definitely not the message this time and Lakota is the biggest loser under this proposal, dollar wise. We are very hopeful that revisions will be made throughout the budget process.”
The other two Butler County school districts that would see decreases over the next two fiscal years are Ross Local School District, which would lose $438,765, a 4.2 percent decrease, and Talawanda City School District, which would lose $594,482, a 7.5 percent decrease.
Ross Treasurer Cathy McMonigle said that state funding for Ross has been increasing a little less than 1 percent per year for the last three fiscal years, and they had expected funding to remain “relatively flat” for 2015 to 2019.
“Subsequently this decrease will change the look of the next forecast since it directly affects our general operating funds,” she said.
Hamilton City School District is one of four Butler County school districts that would see a 21 percent increase under the proposal, which for the district means slightly more than $13.1 million over the next two fiscal years.
Hamilton schools Treasurer Robert Hancock said that “the district is always appreciative of additional state funding.” The district receives the largest amount of state aid in Butler County due to its large size, lower than average property valuation and lower than average per capita income.
“Being the district that receives the largest amount of state in terms of dollars we will also be the district that receives the largest increase,” Hancock said. The district currently receives approximately $62,609,233 in state aid, and is expected to receive a 10 percent increase annually for the next two years.
Also standing to gain 21 percent during a two-year period would be Middletown City School District ($6.8 million), Fairfield City School District ($4.2 million) and Madison Local School District ($1.4 million).
“We’ve been flat-funded for quite a while now and even though enrollment has continued to increase … our funding has remained flat,” said AJ Huff, spokeswoman for Madison schools. “Any relief that we can get to help offset the cost of more students and making sure that everyone is getting the best education that we can provide them, then obviously that’s a good thing.”
Even though voters in the district just approved a renewal levy, district officials already are discussing making cost reductions where they can.
“We don’t want to get too excited yet because things can always change when it’s coming from the state, but it’s definitely a huge relief for us in terms of looking at our 5-year forecast and looking at how long this levy will last us,” Huff said. “With the renewal levy, right now as everything stands, we’d be looking at a deficit in four to five years.”
District officials want to push that back as far as they can.
“To do that, we’d be looking at savings and how we can make changes to make the best fiscal decisions for the district,” she said. “Adding that (state) money in there is going to ease the burden a little bit and hopefully help us push that deficit back as far as we can.”
The total approximate increase in aid in the next two fiscal years for the remaining school districts is: $1.3 million for Monroe Local School District; $753,657 for New Miami Local School District; and $260,645 for Edgewood City School District.
WARREN COUNTY
Among Warren County school districts, Mason City School District would take the hardest hit — losing an approximate $5.2 million in the next two fiscal years.
That would be a “significant” impact to the school district, as it represents 5 percent of its total operating revenue, according to Ronda Johnson, Mason’s treasurer.
“The governor’s proposal is a philosophical shift to drive more state funding to school districts identified as less capable of raising local revenue,” Johnson said. “His proposal takes nearly $1 million each year from Mason students and redistributes it to students across the state.”
Mason, which receives $39.3 million in annual state funding, is at the mercy of a two-year biennium budget cycle that has been “a roller coaster” over the last two cycles – down $7 million, then up $5 million, for example, Johnson said.
“That unpredictability and inconsistency is what challenges our financial stability,” she said.
However, Mason Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline said at such an early point in the budget cycle, district officials are confident that legislators are equally concerned about Kasich’s proposal.
Standing to gain the most in Warren County school districts from the proposed budget would be Franklin City School District with a total increase of nearly $1.3 million in that timespan, a 10.1 percent increase, and Lebanon City School District, with a total increase of $2.1 million, 10.7 percent increase.
That increase looks good initially for Franklin schools, which was left flat-funded by the governor’s last budget, and Franklin Superintendent Michael Sander said the increased funding was “a good place to start.”
However, he noted that because the budget also includes a proposal for reducing tangible personal property tax reimbursements to school districts, the entire package as it stands now amounts to “a flatline deal” for the school district.
Sander also stressed that it is “so preliminary in the process that it’s really hard to guesstimate anything.”
“As far as when it affects our budget proposals, until the budget’s finished, we don’t really deal with that anyway,” he said. “Until the budget is approved and signed, we just don’t worry about the speculation.”
The governor’s budget is still at the proposal stage, with the state legislature likely to weigh in with changes to some items between now and June.
Barbara Shaner, associate executive director of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials, cautioned that many details of Kasich’s education plan are still unknown. But Shaner said in general, OASBO is encouraged to see an overall increase in school funding. She also said Kasich’s desire to push funding to districts with less local capacity is generally a positive thing.
Staff Writer Jeremy P. Kelley contributed to this story.
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