FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio -- Gov. Mike DeWine last week announced that, due to the economic slowdown related to COVID-19, he was cutting 3.7 percent (which equates to $300.4 million) in funding to Ohio’s public K-12 schools through the end of the fiscal year (June 30).
For the Fairview Park City School District, the total reduction is $375,718, or an adjusted per-pupil reduction rate of $224.
“This was a bit of a surprise for us,” Superintendent Bill Wagner said. “We didn’t see the cuts coming. Otherwise, we would have tried to be even more aggressive at the start of this school year. But with the pandemic, things are changing dramatically and very rapidly.”
Schools Treasurer Kimberly Sperling is worried about future cuts.
“I’ve heard up to 20 percent reduction for next school year, which could be about $540,000 for Fairview City Schools,” Sperling said. “So we’re pretty much looking at every budget line right now and seeing where we can cut.”
The district expects to receive about $160,000 from the CARES Act, a federal program giving states COVID-related education funding.
“That funding can be used over the next 27 months for extra expenses -- technology, sanitation supplies or extra education services -- incurred because of the shutdown, but it’s not really intended to help replace those funds that the state is cutting,” Sperling said.
Also on the horizon for Fairview Park City Schools is a new-money levy for the November ballot. It represents the district’s first operating levy since 2006.
Wagner said the district has spent the last four years planning for this tax increase. It’s also been a frequent topic of conversation during his annual state-of-the-schools addresses.
“It’s going to be even more important now from the perspective that we just took a $375,000 cut in the last two months of this budget, and we’re anticipating another significant reduction coming July 1 for next school year,” Wagner said.
“We knew we were running a little bit of a deficit already this year. We were going to try to roll with that, absorb and reduce the best we could, but now there’s no way we’re going to be able to balance the budget this year with these reductions and with next year’s expected reductions," he said.
"It becomes even more important for us to pass a new-money levy in November or we’re going to be facing very significant financial challenges.”
As for the expected millage for the levy, Wagner said the treasurer was zeroing in on an amount prior to the budget cuts. Now, she’s going back to the drawing board before the Board of Education votes whether to approve the millage this summer.
“The district will be looking at all options to try to reduce our expenses, reduce our operating costs and make our request as minimal as we possibly can, with the understanding that a lot of people are struggling financially right now,” Wagner said.
“We certainly appreciate and understand that, because we as a district are doing the same.”
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