School District Changes for 2024 / 2025

ANSWER:

Short Answer - Due to the failure of two levies (November 2023 Property Tax and March 2024 Earned Income Tax), the District made the difficult, but necessary, changes that were detailed at the January 23, 2024 BOE meeting. As the District noted at that time, they thoroughly reviewed ALL options, and were working to develop a plan that impacted the District the least. At that time, they were clear if the Earned Income Tax didn't pass, there would need to be additional cuts to close the $2 million shortfall reflected in the 5-Year forecast.

The changes for 2024/2025 for the Milton-Union Exempted Village School District are as follows:

• Athletic Fee Changes (April 15 Meeting) - These are increases across the Board for all extra-curriculars.

  • HS Extracurricular Athletics

    • $100.00 (1st and 2nd Season)

    • $50.00 (3rd and additional seasons)

  • MS Extracurricular Athletics

    • $90.00 (1st and 2nd Season)

    • $45.00 (3rd and additional seasons)

  • HS Co-curricular (Band, Show Choir, Color Guard, Winterguard)

    • $100.00 (1st and 2nd Season)

    • $50.00 (3rd and additional seasons)

• Reduction in Staffing (May 20 Meeting) - As noted by the BOE, these reductions were reviewed in detail and although extremely difficult, were necessary to meet the financial obligations of the District.

  • Classified Staff Reduction - Abolishment of Library Clerk position

  • Classified Staff Reduction - Reduction to 3.5 hours per school day for Clinic Aide position

  • Reduction of three (3) full-time equivalent teaching positions

    • Provisional Career Technical Teacher, one English / LA teacher (7-12 grade), one Title I teacher.

• One Bell Schedule (May 20 Meeting) - The single bell schedule will allow for a more efficient staffing level and busing schedule to save the District funds.

  • Common bell schedule for ALL buildings in the District.

  • 8AM - 3PM

• Modifications to Busing (May 20 Meeting) - Will allow for a reduced number of bus routes and drivers necessary to service the District, allowing for savings to the District. State law only requires busing for non-high school students who are 2 miles or greater.

  • No busing for anyone living closer than 1.95 Miles from the Schools.

  • No busing for High School Students.

  • No changes to MVCTC busing or other State of Ohio mandated busing requirements.

  • Additional changes to drop-off and pick-up procedures to accommodate the busing changes.

Long Answer -

Cuts Timeline / Discussion

After the defeat of the property tax levy in November, 2023 the Board of Education made $700,000 in cuts from the budget to become compliant with State of Ohio 5-Year Forecast (see the District 5-Year Forecasts here).  On January 23, 2024 the BOE also announced the potential additional cuts that would occur if the March Earned Income Tax failed. From those minutes it stated, "Dr. Ritchey mentioned the language of the resolution was purposeful, so the public is aware of what is being considered should the levy fail".

From January through March, MUA noted these potential cuts on our website at a specific page that detailed the cuts and on Facebook seven separate times (January 30, February 20, February 23, February 24, February 29, March 1, March 17).  The District held two Finance 101 meetings to discuss the school budget and what could occur if the March Earned Income tax didn’t pass.  The District was EXTREMELY transparent about these potential cuts, and the MUA went above that with our efforts to make as many people as possible aware of these potential cuts through social media, mailers, meetings, and more. These cuts certainly shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.  

In March, after the community voted down the Earned Income Tax, it was clear that these cuts had to be made by the District.  The community stated clearly that they didn’t want the District to have any more funds (by voting down both a property tax levy and an earned income tax option), and that they wanted the District to work within their existing budget.  To do that, and meet the State requirements on the 5-Year forecast, meant they had to make these difficult cuts.

5-Year Forecast in the RED

November 2023 - 5-Year Forecast

The November 2023 5-Year Forecast showed a $3 million shortfall in 2027. The presentation given by the District Treasurer at the May 20 BOE meeting shows that the cuts made in January are helping the District stay out of Fiscal Caution.

May 2024 - Projected 5-Year Forecast

With the cuts from January 2024 ($700,000 savings) and the cuts from May 2024 ($1.2 million), the District 5-Year Forecast looks much better. As noted in the PowerPoint presentation (which can be downloaded from the Agenda packet for the May 20 meeting) the deficit spending continues to be a HUGE issue. Although, the 5-Year Forecast goes back to the black in 2028, it is clear that spending $1.3 million a year more than you bring in, will bankrupt the District by 2030 or sooner if State funding levels are reduced, which is extremely likely.

As noted throughout the BOE meeting discussions over the last 6 months and at the Finance 101 meetings, THERE WILL NEED TO BE ADDITIONAL CUTS / REDUCTIONS IN SERVICE / FEE INCREASES if additional funding is not voted in. This isn't a threat, it is a fact that is supported by the data. The District has to either bring in more funds or make more cuts to meet their financial requirements with the State of Ohio to not have the State take over the District's finances when the District goes into Fiscal Caution.

State Funding / Lack of Levy Support

Sadly, cuts are being made by Districts everywhere, due to the reduction in funding from the State of Ohio, loss of ESSR funds, and the inability of Districts to get enough revenue through levies. Unfortunately, MU is not unique in this situation, as 83% of Districts that requested new funding in the March 2024 election were not supported by their communities in those requests (IdeaStream - 4/1/24) . People may have opinions on why this is, but the facts of the situation means that more and more Districts will be making cuts, as levy funding is not keeping up with costs.

Our goal at MUA is to help educate our community so we do not become an area that moves in the wrong direction like other communities have when their school isn't supported. With our school being the largest employer in our area - we certainly believe that this isn't JUST about our kids, it is also about our communities success. We want the best for our kids, and we want to see our community thrive so our kids want to stay in our community. We need a strong school for those things to occur. If we don't support the school financially, we will see many negative impacts beyond losing great teachers to other Districts that support their schools (although this is also very sad to see occur already).

Check out other communities who have had to make cuts recently. Sadly, there are a lot.

Examples-

Tipp City Cuts Staff (DDN - 5/22/24)

Franklin Closes School (DDN - 4/25/24)

Youngstown makes Budget Cuts (WFMJ - 4/23/24)

Fairfield Schools make cuts (WLWT - 4/21/24)

Clinton-Massie cuts (NewsJournal - 3/22/24)

Centerville Cuts Staff (DDN - 3/20/24)

Akron Cuts Staff (IdeaStream - 3/20/24)

Mt. Healthy Cuts Staff (Local12 - 3/8/24)

Graham cuts 2024 (Urbana Citizen - 2/12/24)

Middletown Cuts Staff (WOSU - 1/17/24)

Graham cuts budget/staff (SNS - 5/15/19) - This was 5 years ago.

November 2024 Ballot?

The Board, at their July 15th Regular Meeting voted to place a new 0.75%, 10 year term - Earned Income Tax Levy for Operations on the ballot in November. Learn more about the request at the Chatter here.

Other Cuts / Why Not X / Other Facebook Questions/Comments?

Reviewing comments on the School Districts post on Facebook about the changes had people note some of the following:

• The School is "Top Heavy" with Administration, there would be X savings if something else occurred.

  • As noted and supported by the data here, the District is not actually top heavy with administration staff, it is actually extremely average. The District has 3 Principals and 2 Assistant Principals (with the hiring of a new Asst. Principal for the Elementary School for next year), much like all other Districts. Comparisons to other Districts is available at that link above.

  • Certain duties and tasks that are required and necessary for the District to provide, require Administrator's to perform.

• Making these cuts will inconvenience the community.

  • This is clearly a fact. Unfortunately, it is also clearly a fact that the community did not vote to provide the funds necessary to the District to keep these services.

  • The District made it abundantly clear that these services would be reduced in January if additional funds were not voted in. The community voted against the funding mechanisms that would have kept these changes from occurring.

• Reallocate PI money to operations.

  • This cannot be done by State law, and there isn't a way "around" that.

  • The Earned Income Tax request in March would have lowered the PI tax and increased the operations tax, changing the overall allocation from PI to Operations (even those the original breakdown was kept as required by law) as well as provide additional funding to not have to have these changes, but this was defeated.

  • Go here to learn more about PI and Operations money.

• Retention Bonuses can wait.

  • This bonus was negotiated as part of the OAPSE in 2022. This isn't something new nor is it something that can be deferred or ignored.

  • This bonus was paid out of ESSR funds (COVID funding), not standard operational money.

  • MUA requested the amount of money provided for the bonus (and will update once we receive it - but it is Senior week and the District is busy), but based on our estimates, it is likely less than $10,000 for all positions combined, potentially around $5,000.

  • This money is obligated to those staff members, and it is not going to impact the much larger deficit that needs to be resolved.