001Good evening. I'd like to call for order the February meeting of the Oakville School Board. If you could please uh stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay, Steve, you want to do the roll call, please? >> Mr. Here, >> Mr. West >> here. Mr. >> Here, >> Mr. K here. >> Do you have anything on for communications? Yeah, for me just a thank you to our maintenance crew and our custodians at Jason Nash. It has been a really busy week and a half um between Spring Meire Elementary where we had some some plumbing issues that went on and uh just an incredible job the amount of time and
002effort that these guys put into this. Uh and then of course the snow days last week with uh out in 0° weather and clearing all of our walkways and our and our parking lots. So truly just a thank you to that whole crew for the efforts that they put in. Oh yes, also thank you. Yes. And then also um for the response of our staff at Bridgetown Middle School where we had a threat. Um the the response from local police was incredible. Um, and then really being able to get our staff in a quick time to be able to transition into a reunification plan. And so, you know, we practice those plans, but we rarely have to do those plans. And so, um, just seeing the response from all the staff at Bridgetown Middle School
003to the way our students behaved and reacted along the way, um, and parents and then of course all of the the police from multiple agencies. um Delh High Green, Hamilton County, and then also Cincinnati. Um we had staff members that came that supported us from Southwest School Districts, the three river school districts. And so truly a thank you to everybody involved in that. So Steve, communications, >> just one thing to communicate for employees, uh staff, vendors, partners. Um shout out to our payroll team of Lisa Hower and Chris Vera. We issue 1300 W2s over 1300 W2s. If you have received your W2 vendors 1099 1099, please contact our office, but all that the deadline of January 31st. That's all you have. I'd just like to add uh a couple comments about the uh event for
004Bridgetown, the threat that we had. Um I went to pick my kids up at the reunification spot. I would tell you it was pretty impressive. um how organized it was, how calm everybody was, how nice everybody was. I mean, it was it was pretty awesome. So, while you really hope that you never have anything that like that occur, um I think just the planning and the way it was carried out was well. So, >> okay. Can I have um a motion to adopt the agenda? >> Miss Mr. West? >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes, Mr. >> Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Super. >> Yes. It is my pleasure to introduce Beth Rezenberger, the principal here at John Foster Golis. Uh Beth, going to turn it over to you for your presentation tonight. Thanks. >> Thank you.
005Thank you everybody. So, I have the pleasure tonight of actually uh introducing you to a group of our students. So, you know, it's always we really pride ourselves on leadership and we have a wonderful staff that provides leadership to one another. Uh we have uh wonderful students and teachers who work together in different leadership capacities. So, tonight I want to honor our safety patrol. Now, safety patrol might sound like a crosswalk or something like that, but our safety patrol really goes beyond that. We actually have a process where students apply. They receive a reference from fellow teachers and then they get chosen to be a part of it and it's really really an honor. So it goes a little bit beyond just typical safety. One of the things that we try to work on with
006our students is peer-to-peer leadership, especially helping some of our students who might have different needs. So often children will respond a little bit more positively and better to a peer versus to a grown-up. So these wonderful kids are a group of our safety patrol that can do some things to help our children with disabilities. So for example, in the morning when the buses rolled in, they're there to help them or maybe transition them to a classroom. They are with our kindergarten students who are here all day help them with lunch. In fact, they even walk them down to lunch and are excellent in fact in their classroom behavioral discipline standards and they are always always there for us whenever we have the need. They help at the end of the day too and making sure
007that children get where they need to go safely and it's actually helping the independence of our students. So, I just wanted to showcase them tonight and I have for you I'm going to call them up and we have some pictures before I forget. We have two phenomenal teachers that actually spend some time over summer planning this as well. So the kids go through an application process in the spring. It's a really big deal. And then Sora Vel who teaches work of fifth grade science immersion and Mrs. Vanessa Wellorth who teaches social communications special education actually train the children on their own time in August before the school year begins. And so they go through a process where they have their own professional marketing to be safety control members. With that, I'd like them to share
008with you their experiences as safety patrol members, why they like it, why it's important, and we'll show you a few photos that are a part of a typical day. So we're going to start before we go on, I want to introduce Sha, Tilly May, Catherine Cox, Will Smith, and Grace Robin. If you guys can just come back this way. and we're just going to share a very very brief quick explanation of why we chose to do this and why it's so important. >> My position on the safety patrol team is to assist students that need some extra help to get ready for their day. My job is important because I help not one but two or more people. I walk students with special needs to their lockers, help them unpack and get ready for learning.
009I enjoy this job because I love to help people and I feel like I help brighten up the days of those students I assist. >> Hi, my name is Ty. My position on the JSD safety patrol team is lunch, kindergarten, first and second quarter. Now I do bus third and fourth quarter. My job is important because I like to see how they learn more by me teaching them. I enjoy this job because I get to see almost everyone every day and her smiles make me smile. >> Hi, my name is Catherine Cox. My positional in JFD2 is to help special needs kids off the bus into their classroom before they go get their breakfast in the morning. My job is important because everybody needs to go to class in the morning and just because they're
010different from me, they could go to school and make friends. I enjoy this job because I get to make friends with special needs kids and I get to help them also. I get to talk and get to know them. Hi. Hi, my name is my position on campus helper. My job because kids with special needs need help where to go and we help them get to their lockers and get set. I enjoy this job because I love helping out and getting to their soldiers and other grades who may need help. Hi, my uncle Grace Rob is the afternoon bus. My job is important because they give me her energy to get home to get home daily. I enjoy this job because I like to help other moms and dads for being here tonight, too. Thank
011you for sharing your children with us this evening. Students, thanks for really being the leaders that we want you to be. Also, remember next year when you go to Rapid, you'll have lots of opportunities with this type of stuff, too. So, thank you again for your being here tonight. >> Thank you. Great job, by the way. You guys did phenomenal. We appreciate everything you do to help your fellow students and make sure they're safe. So, thank you. >> Yes. We're going to move on. So, you guys are welcome to stay, but if you'd like to leave, um, this would be a good time to do that. Thank you. Okay. Treasury report. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh this evening, uh I will provide the report of a financial forecast to the district. Um you may be
012wondering why I'm providing this report in February. Uh the years past this report is required was required um in the end of November and also at the end of May. Um we'll talk about that change here in a second. But um appreciate the the video filming. All of this information is available on our website. It's available uh on the department the treasures department uh page on our website. Everything's publicly posted as are all of the other previous reports for many many years. So the breadcrumb trail is there live as well. Uh so this evening we're going to talk about our fiscal health as well as the forecast and projections. Um the agenda we're going to dive into revenue. Uh there have been a number of things happened here recently as far as revenue and how
013that's going to impact the bills. Um those things include new state legislation. There were four bills that were signed by the governor de um in December and then also there were some change changes to our funding as far as our township funding from what's referred to as tax increment funding. those five we'll discuss. We'll talk about expenses. We'll talk about fiscal stress uh and where our district is with regards to fiscal stress. Um not only projections, but I think it's important for our community uh and our district to understand how we compare to other school districts in Southwest Ohio. What is our financial position compared to not only our neighbors but all those in southwest Ohio? So, we'll look at those comparisons. We'll talk about the permanent improvement fund briefly. uh bond issue. Uh and
014then to wrap things up just a little bit of stewardship and return on investment. We'll really hunker down on really the first three and then we'll go through those last three relatively quickly. So to start out revenue um before we get to that we'll talk about the changes in the forecast. So as mentioned previously this was a November May presentation. Um as of uh last July, Governor DeWine signed a law that enacted the forecast now to be presented um one time in October. So that's already passed. That was the last that was whatever it was four months ago. Moving forward from here moving forward unless the legislators and governor want changes the law moving forward every presentation will be the last day of February um and the last day of August. So the all 613
015school districts have to submit a forecast by the end of August and the end of February. We talked about this at our October meeting, but why is this problematic for not only kills but many schools? It's problematic for a number of reasons. Think about the August 31st deadline. Okay, our board meets the first Monday of the month. So in essence, we can have to enact a forecast by August 1st. Well, we all know um through uh Miss Marquette, Mr. Nash, Mr. Beckhott with our human resources, we're not even finished staffing um by by August 1st, right? And so that makes that projection very very difficult. On the revenue side, as taxpayers, you receive unless it's you received two tax bills. You received a tax bill in January and you received a tax bill in June.
016Okay? We as a school district and any public entity, we don't collect those dollars until the one in June will typically give in September after the August deadline and the one in January typically will collect in April after the February deadline. So it it becomes problematic when it when it comes to projections and moving forward. Also, we don't have building budgets formed at that time either. insurance. Insurance typically we get those in the late summer. So that also becomes a troubling spot when it comes to projections because our second highest expense is our insurance just like any school district. We've seen this many many times. Uh but as as the chief financial officer my responsibility is to kind of obviously not only gauge the room but understand that some of us have heard this many
017times some of us have heard this for the very first time. Okay. So, as a taxpayer, your dollar, your tax dollar goes into three buckets. 78 cents of your taxpay investment goes into our general fund, the operations of our district. 14 cents goes into the infrastructure, roof, pavement, windows, buses, so on and so forth. And then the final 8 cents on communities supported, reinvested in the bond issue for those three buildings that are currently being constructed in the face of that context and so on and so forth. Three buckets. Okay, important to know and I'll talk about the bond issue because it was recently recently supported in November. School finance 101, if you run into fiscal stress, school finance 101 says you cannot move dollars from one place to another. I think that's very important
018to understand because as a taxpayer many times you're thinking, hey, well, I just I just supported this or I just supported that. We cannot move dollars from a debt fund over to a general fund for operations. If there's any question along the way, certainly feel free to stop. So this evening, we're going to focus largely on our general fund, our operations, right, which is consistent mostly personnel and staffing. We've talked about where the dollars come from. The majority of our funding comes from our local community, our local tax base. Uh, and then we get dollars from the state of Ohio. About 29 cents on 29% of our overall funding comes from the state of Ohio. 8 cents comes from other sources which we'll talk about here in a second. If you don't remember any of
019these tonight, remember one thing. We have a revenue problem. We have a major major revenue problem here in our hills. Okay? And there are significant revenue concerns which have been communicated which should really be uh of a surprise. But let's dive into these just briefly. each of these sections as far as our revenue and I'm going to start with the smallest piece of the pie. I'm going to talk about that 8 cents on the dollar. Okay, that 8 cents on the dollar I'm now considering local control. Okay, 8 cents on the dollar. What is that 8 cents on the dollar are things like instructional fees, things like participation fees, things like rental fees, things like investment income. We we're uh we're in a 22 plus program which basically means uh if you're above age 22
020you have the ability to still get your high school pump but we get some funding from that as well. Medicaid reimbursement. So a very small sliver of the pie. We actually can kind of really draw and and determine what that's going to look like. Okay? Cuz I mentioned those items there. That leaves 92% of the body. Okay. 92% of our funding has been significantly reduced or we have no control at all. Okay. So 90 92 92% of our revenue uh others aren't controlling on our behalf which for me is frustrating as a local school district. So let's talk about each of those. First, the state. I mentioned at the get-go, one of the issues with our revenue, one of the revenue concerns for the state is there was recently some new legislation. But before even
021that new legislation was passed in Oills, we're one of 613 districts. So, we're just one story. Okay? Every district has their own story. We're just one story. But our our story says that in Oak Hills for well over a decade the average increase from the state of Ohio 30% of our budget is 1% or less. Okay? And I know this is a little difficult to see, but let's talk about the state budget as a whole. Let's not even talk about just K12. Let's talk about Medicaid funding. Let's talk about higher education. you want to talk about um JFS, whatever you want to talk about stadiums, whatever we want to talk about. Okay, we're talking about the entire state of Ohio budget. Way back when in 1975, 40% of the state budget went toward K12. Okay,
02240%. Yeah. What's interesting about that 1975 for those that have been around public education is that's when House Bill 920 and inflation and there were some some parameters put around the growth of revenue for schools was prohibited. So as property values went up schools couldn't see additional revenue. That was way back in the 70s. Okay. 40% of the pie from the state of Ohio went to K12. What does that look like projected to look like in 2027? about half 20% of the pie. So it's not only Oak Hills, it's public education in total. Let's talk about local revenue. Our last levy was in 2013 and in 2013 we saw a nice bump from the local community. We appreciate the support. Since that time, our local revenue has been flatlined with the exception of the reappraisal
023on 23. Okay. So we went essentially 10 years without any sort of increase in our local funding. Just imagine what we look like in state funding. Okay. Moving forward, very sluggish growth in our local funding as well, but you can see that bump from that reappraisal, but moving forward relatively flatlined. So about four years ago, uh property values, well even you know a little bit longer than that back in 201 property values went crazy. Okay. And so as a result, what was run center on the legislator's lap was property tax relief. Okay. How could we provide any sort of benefit to the taxpayer? Um so this has been discussed now for four years and I kept getting the question when when some of you asked, some board members asked what's going to happen when is
024this when is this relief actually going to take place? And my answer was I don't know. Okay. And the reason I didn't know is because there were 21 different recommendations and then we talked about this about 3 or 4 months ago. Every single day or every other day. There you go. We have all kinds of all kinds of ideas and thoughts, right? We need to give this benefit. We need to give that benefit. We need to have a medium income test. All kinds of bills very chaotic four years ago. Where the rubber hit the road was in December when the governor signed these four bills. And I don't think these are going to be the only four bills, but he signed four bills in December, right at the end of this general assembly. And we'll
025talk about these four bills here in a second. But it's important to understand the date, December. Okay, that was after this October forecast and it was after a significant issue and initiative in NoS. Okay, things change. Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Anquire, High School District. brace for terrifying property tax reform. Pretty aggressive headline. Okay. But I think it's important to understand these pieces. When you see headlines like this, this is what Joe and Sally taxpayer know. Okay. Everything's recorded. Everyone's welcome to to listen to to our board meetings, but this is what they see, which I understand that. So disclosure before we start diving too deep into the legislation. Public education funding in the state of Ohio has been ruled unconstitutional at least three times. Okay. The constitution in the state of Ohio says word for word
026a thorough and efficient education at no cost to the local community student. Okay. So we can't charge. Well, that we're hoping to get some sort of at least funding from the state at some sort of level that is consistent with years past and not flatlined. But three times has been considered unconstitutional even though it's in the constitution. One disclosure. Disclosure number two, and I've said this many of times, this isn't us versus the taxpayer. This isn't the homeowner versus the student. We are absolutely in full support. And I think it's important to understand we are in full support of senior citizens giving relief. Uh single empty nesters, renters, whoever it is, we want property tax relief. However, we also have to make sure we're operating our school system at a level that we're used to
027and a level that we're able to project. So that becomes very problematic and we understand that legislators are in a difficult spot. Again, our local legislators are in a very tough spot trying to balance both of these items. And then the final thing is is if we're required to submit a forecast, just know that that forecast es and flows and is very fluid. Anytime you change all, which they have with these four bills, is significantly going to impact what forecasts look like. So what are these four laws? This is a little bit of 2011 or 301. This is a little bit more advanced. I'm not going to go into great detail, but just know that essentially our inflationary increases moving forward are going to be slim to none. So, if we see any sort of
028increase as far as property values with the reappraisal, we're not going to see a 15 plus% increase. It's going to be the cost of inflation, which quite frankly I think personally I think is reasonable. My only issue with that is is that that wasn't those weren't the rules of the game for many many years. Okay, we would have loved to just had that increase consistently, nominal increases throughout. Um that essentially what those three bills are encompassing there. Uh and then the final item is is the county bud budget commissioners which consists of three individuals have the ability to override levies and we'll talk about that here in a second. So, uh, the moral of this story is is that Oak Hills and every school district has played by the rules of the game for 50
029years. 50 years of the same rules. Those rules were changed in December. Uh, again, the impact of Gills is moving forward is going to particularly impact any sort of increase. And I think this is important here because this budget commission consists of the county auditor, county treasurer, and county prosecutor. Those three individuals, you know, how many individuals we have in our district constituents? 45,000. So it's north of that probably now, but over 45,000. So if our 45,000 community members support an issue, there are three individuals, which I don't think any reside in our district, have have the authority over the board of education to change what the electorate has ultimately chosen, which is concerning. It's not only concerning to me, it's concerning to one of those three individuals, the county auditor. County auditor says uh
030it's it's undemographic and if voters choose a levy um we shouldn't have the ability to change but that's not what the law says. So a lot going on is the moral of this story. Okay. Um everyone's going to be impacted. Expect more levies. Uh expect more andor reductions. Steve interpret this in dollars and cents. What do these four bills mean in dollars and cents? the Ohio Association of School of Business Officials, which I am part of, all the treasures across the state are a part of, superintendent organization. Um, as of now, the interpretation of those bills as far as dollars and cents is still being interpreted by the Ohio Department of Taxation, uh, the county auditor, uh, and other state partners. So, my projections are my projections. However, I'm going to continue continue to wait
031to still get guidance moving forward, but none of these bills are positive for public health education. The last piece of the puzzle is TIFF. Um, our TIF revenue has been volatile over the years. Talked about this as a board. It's been volatile over the years. Um, the calculation has been revised here in the fall. The calculation was revised by Green Township. That revision at this point is is being discussed, but as of what we know today, that revision is going to cost $1.7 million annually. I like to talk about the people. We're in the people business. 1.7 million means at least 21 staff positions. Okay. Again, 92% is out of our control. Uh either reduced or no control uh as compared to 2025. The revenue concerns are real uh particularly because the revenue is obviously
032well below the cost of inflation at this point. Moving on to expenditures. Quickly talk here about expenditures. Obviously, as I just mentioned, we're people business. 90% of our bud 89% of our budget is people. And I think as important as anything, anyone can be a watchdog as far as taxpayer dollars, but um the moral of the story and the bottom line is is if you rack them all and you stack them all up, 23 school districts in the county, we spend less than all but one. Okay? So, you have to let that sink in when you're talking about expenses and and you know, the market and your peers. We spend all of them less than one. We serve all students, gifted, at risk, middle students, special needs students, whatever it is, we serve all students.
033Obviously, uh things have changed as far as our demographics. Special ed students continue to increase,00 in 2015 up to over over 1,250 uh in 2025. So a significant increase number of students identified with autism is a significant 84 in 2015. Uh we're up to 214 in 2025. I share that information because out of our control are required staffing levels. You are required to serve at a certain level with with regards to staff. So, the number of teachers have increased from 76 up to 105 within a 10-year period. And the number of aids have increased from 64 up to 212 in a 10-year period. Keep in mind, we still spend less than all but one district in Hamilton County. Variables that are out of our control. What do we have on the horizon? Um, first looking
034back, I just mentioned some of the increases, many of which are out of our control. Uh we also had a reduction in our federal funding. So you may be federal you may be familiar with title one IDA. We have reductions in federal funding for the tune to 425,000. Moving forward we have negotiations here coming up uh in a couple months. So u that will obviously have a significant impact on what expenses are going to look like moving forward. our fringe benefits. Our health insurance is our second largest cost which is consistent with any school district across the state. Our health insurance saw a renewal increase of 12%. Which is either the highest or second highest here in about the last 6 or seven years. So significant increase in our health insurance and our dental insurance
035is on the rise by 30%. So expenses are obviously um climate and then we have others other expenses supplies um contracts and services utilities uh which is only 11%. We are we mentioned it a million times saying it. We have an energy conservation project in March of 2014. That energy conservation project with new LEDs, fixtures, cuts off Mr. ash um systems so on and so forth automatic shut offs that's yielded a savings of $500,000 annually since we embarked on that project uh a little over 10 years ago one time federal co funding because this was in the media did the district receive federal co dollars yes we received federal co dollars what did we do with those dollars we didn't go out and hire staff we retained our own people so our own staff instead
036of paying out of a general fund that 78 cents on the dollar we paid out of federal funds 38 staff members. Okay. Projections moving forward with expenses and we'll wrap up the expenses about 3 and 1/2 about the 3 and 12 to 4% which is about the cost of inflation uh for our expenses moving forward. What does this look like as far as our expenses? 22, 23, 24. Essentially in 24, you see that large spike in expenses. That's because those COVID dollars expired. And so those 38 staff members that were being being paid for of the federal dollars are now coming back on our general fund dollars. And as a result, our general fund is going to see a significant spike. Obviously, that levels off to about a 4% year going forward. because of the
037bulk revenue expenses, you can see a pretty significant gap. Uh that gap has been pretty consistent for a number of years with the exception of the co years. Um so when you see that gap of about a 4% increase or 4% uh projection on expenses and about a 1% projection on revenue, uh that's where you start to run yourself into what's referred to as deficit spending. Last item we're really hunker down on is fiscal stress projections and the comparison to others. Obviously, I mentioned you know the fiscal concerns and the financial concerns of the district have been presented in prior forecasts. Uh so it shouldn't really be a surprise on where we are. However, um these recent initiatives and these recent items, the state will high the tax changes that has accelerated our financial position
038unfortunately for the worse. Most districts are on the ballot every 3 to 5 years. And just a reminder for our community, the last time they're on the ballot was in 2013. Um and we've had one operating levy in 29 years, which is unheard of. Okay. So, we don't have the business of working for me lately, but that is a that is a uh that's a track record that probably uh is unparalleled across the state, not only in the county, but across the state. Fiscal stress. So, what is our financial condition compared to everyone else? What do we look like compared to our neighbors? So, these are 26 27 projections. Keep in mind, we're in fiscal 26 right now. that ends at the end of June. Then we'll start fiscal 27. But essentially the next all
039the next year, here's what the financial positions of other districts look like. We'll go from a very strong financial position now to a very concerning financial position. And I know these are very tiny out there. We have a copy of this posted on our website. Uh this we as a as a treasure community across the state the benchmark of the best practice is 3 month savings in your bank. Okay? So you want about a 3 month savings. Another way to say that is 90 days cash. Another way to say that is is look at the graph. Okay? And the graph simply says if you're up here your position is pretty good. You have good fiscal health. But oh by the way, you can't have too good a fiscal health because the status quo parameters on
040that as well. You can't have too high of the balance. We we're not in that position right now. But you can see the weakest financial position. You start talking about college not healthy in that area down there. You can see Gills uh is creeping near the bottom as far as the financial position that is concerning. So I'll just highlight a few of these. Uh Princeton, this was actually Princeton's last year's number and I did that intentionally because Princeton is was in a better financial position last year than we are right now as far as that 30, you know, that that uh 3 month savings. Princon is in a better financial position than we are now. Um, even with that, they went out to their community, saw the levy, uh, and it says here pretty quick,
041pretty easily. Uh, you know, spending cuts, reductions, hire increase. Um, 100% of field trips are going to be selfunded. Um, and then additional cuts will be made today. Fortunately for Princeton, they pass that. Uh, Hamilton is the next one. Everyone should, I think, be aware of where Hamilton is right now. Hamilton is in some significant financial concerns. Their cash position is better than ours. Hamilton's going to lay off 153 and or not replace 153 positions through attrition. And you can talk about all the other reductions and how that has impacted um the district in total. Deer Park uh Deer Park also was on the ballot 25. Um, we're not in the game of 2 mil levy, 3 mil levy, four mil levy. We're in the game of a 7 mil levy with a district that's
042in a better financial position than hills. Wyoming Wyoming is actively discussing going on the ballot. Nothing has been officially determined at this time. Fairfield has made the determination. Fairfield had a discussion with their community 8 mil 8.6 mil property levy. you want an income tax levy or community if you want an earned income tax levy. They chose to go with a 1.25% earned income tax. Fairfield's in a better financial position than we are today. Southwest is slightly below us in their financial position. They will be going for a property tax levy in May along with reductions. Kings Kings was on the ballot last year. Kings passed a 1% income tax levy and then they also had a roll off of the property tax. So village there on the property tax uh but you get the
043long and short of the story uh for reductions and or additional revenue that were needed. And then obviously I think everyone is where this stands. So where are our projections? Our projections are at this point, which haven't changed much uh from the October submission, uh an $8.5 million deficit spending number for this current fiscal year. Fortunately, we have a cash reserve that obviously is not sustainable. This was presented last May and also presented in October. Stability, action, needed, urgency. Uh we are we are on the edge of action needed in yellow and urgency. We need to do something and we need to do something soon. Changes in our cash position here in the last several months. The green township reduction of 1.7. Obviously interest rates are variable. uh added stamping levels again out of our
044control dictated by the driving uh by the driver means requirements uh per the state and state law reductions in grant funding uh and then health insurance increases. So all said and told, we've changed our past position by a little over $3 million here since May of 25. numbers. We like to be in the range of about 90 days true cash that 3 month. Uh that is expected to be right at that number here in June, maybe slightly over, but then you can see that number continues to quickly uh escalate as far as deficit spending levels um through 28, 29, and 30. This is the worst financial position our district has been in since the last time we saw a levy back in 2013. Permanent improvement fund uh PI fund is at 14 cents on the
045dollar. That's in a stable position right now. That will be impacted by the state legislature that will not see significant growth with property values but that that fund is currently stable at this time. uh our bond issue about eight cents of the dollar. Just to wrap things up, the bond issue in the general fund, it talked how you couldn't go legal funds and do funds and transfer funds. I think this question is an important question to uh address before tax. Why did the school district go for a bond issue if there were financial concerns? Well, just mentioned some of those this evening. Number one, by going from bond issue, just to reiterate, I don't need to defend it because I would double down on it. We were going to we are going to receive over
046$70 million state and the state's going to fund over 50% of that project and the buildings are currently operating that are 100 plus years old uh or 90 plus years old. Obviously, there's some inefficiencies there that become more costly um than to replace at some point in time. Another reason uh obviously there have been things that have changed. Uh there have been things that have changed here with the governor signing new legislation in December. Um and then also there have been changes uh to the TIFF funding um with Green Township. So those are reasons um and things that have changed our position since request. Again, I would still make that recommendation uh based on what we know, what we had known at that time and the additional revenue that we were able to secure from
047the state of Ohio. Final item is our stewardship and return on investment. If you go to the treasures website, you can see all the wonderful things that we do um and how we are tremendous stewards of the taxpayers's dollar. Um again, the last time we had a levy was in 2013. uh at that time um I I started break trail at that time and so you can see over 60 items 60 action items that we have taken since 2013 to preserve our cash balance that commitment was 5 years we were able to stretch talked about how we've been able to stretch uh but unfortunately at this time I I I don't see um barring any unforeseen circumstances that we haven't experienced from the state or any other source I see that our district is going
048to be able to stretch forward. So financial summary again significant and immediate ongoing financial concerns. This was the same slide that was shared with the prior forecast. Uh some stress levels that we haven't experienced since 2013. High deficit spending levels mentioned that we spent less per student than nearly every other district in the county. And so we have two options. As a homeowner, you have three options to change your financial position. You can add as a homeowner, such as getting getting a second or third job. You can add to generate revenue. You can reduce. We're not spending as much time going out to eat another thermostat, whatever it is. Or you can borrow. Okay? School districts can't borrow. You have to end the year. You have to have money in the bank. Okay? So, we
049have one of two options. Either add or reduce. And unfortunately, if it's reductions or both, quite frankly, and we've done both in the past. Prior to 2013, we had wage raises, we had reductions. Uh we also passed 11. But you can do both, add and reduce. Uh but just know that attrition alone and saying we're just not going to kill retirees, that's not going to be significant enough to change our financial position over questions. question. You mentioned with the the bills that were enacted in December, like we don't have final numbers yet on how we're going to be impacted. I'm sure you put some projections in there, but when when do you anticipate you're going to have like a definitive idea of what what that's going to be? >> Yeah. So, uh good question. Um
050the bills, those four bills, really three of the four because that one is is the budget commission, but three of those four bills really drive future projection. Um and future projection from the state indicated a 15% reappraisal beforehand. Um and that reappraisal would be happening uh collection would actually happen next year in 2027. So for me what I never I never forecasted any sort of drastic increase of 15%. I I anticipated that there would be some some sort of action by the state. Um so I didn't see any anything like that uh coming on. I I didn't project anything like that on my forecast. Uh so the sways that you're going to see and you know when you see articles like the Cincinnati Anquire that says this is terrifying you know legislation that has been
051passed uh it it would it would be very very terrifying uh if you built in like some of these districts did some of these districts did build in 15 20 plus percent increases. Our fair our forecast didn't do that. Um so to answer your question really the the effect um I believe is already built in where there's not some massive spike that I'm all of a sudden reducing in future years. Um just cuz I I based on the four years of discussion I didn't know what it would look like but um but it's certainly not beneficial. the numbers that I have uh in our local tax revenue and across the state are in that 1 to 2% uh a little bit less than that of the state but about 1 to 2% on our local.
052Uh keep in mind we do have trailite village going in so that'll give us a little bit of a bump. Um uh but as far as new development, uh really that's the only way to generate if you're if you're a local community, the only way to impact your local line item other than passing a levy um is is to get new construction. And for us, you know, we have some pockets, right? And we have a little bit of of residential and trailside. um you might get a a commercial here or there, but if you think of the magnitude of a district of our size, which is about 28 square miles, um you're talking about a relatively small amount that's not going to be material. Steve, I saw a thing um I think it was today
053where the second half property tax bills may actually go down. Um, and so I assume that would mean a reduction actually in our income as opposed to staying steady because there apparently however elsewhere that we're going to actually lose some of the money that we gain with the last property tax appraisal. So is it even safe to say we're going to get any increase or we could actually have a decrease in coming up? >> Outstanding question. Um, and that's that's part of that interpretation right now with the county auditor and the department of taxation. Uh, I I do believe that could be the case. However, my understanding is is that they're going to make that up. Um, but it might not be until a future fiscal year. And the way they're intending on making that
054up. Again, my understanding is is potentially reducing or eliminating that sales tax holiday. Uh, they typically do maybe that they do that in August, I think. Um, but yeah, Mr. West, that's exactly correct that there could be a reduction. My understanding is that reduction is going to be made up, but it could skew it skew our forecast because that could be made up after the fiscal year is over. So, yeah, moving parts right now. Not to mention, I mean, this this whole thing, this whole crisis was caused by the state of Ohio. They I mean, I I remember when we first came on board used to say 40% of our funding is from the state. Your slide tonight shows it's 29%. So if the state when inflation goes up 3% every year and they give
055us less than 1% increase that means our inflationary increase is greater than 3%. Right? Cuz we got to make up what they don't give us. Um another thing I said this a previous meeting. Um, if you do the calculations on the way states around in Ohio uh fund public schools, we would get another $16 million a year, we wouldn't have a budget crisis at all if they funded public schools at the state level like they do in the average of the states that surround us. That includes West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, all those states, Pennsylvania. Um, so this this whole situation is caused by the state of Ohio. So they, you know, the property tax relief I think we all agree with it should be capped. You should never have to worry about your property
056taxes. You want to double digits or anything like that, but the state of Ohio is going to do their part and they're doing exact opposite. Agree. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Steve. Do we have any director reports? >> No director reports tonight. Okay. And uh we didn't have any constituent sign. Any old business? No business. All right. Uh, new business, treasur's recommendation, Steve. Mr. President, uh, item number one, minutes. I recommend the board of education approve the minutes of the regular board meeting of January 12th as attached. >> So, move. >> Mr. West. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Mr. Kler. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. Number two, I recommend the board of education approve the following donations from the Oak Hills Presbyterian Church and Howard and Linda Becker as submitted. So move >>
057Mr. Orman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kler, >> yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. West, >> yes. >> Item number three, I recommend the board of education approve the following appropriation adjustments as submitted. So move second. >> Mr. Greenwood, >> yes. >> Mr. Trader, >> yes. >> Mr. West, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Item number four, I recommend that board of education approve the 5-year forecast as attached. So move Mr. Ranky, >> yes. Mr. >> West, >> Yes. Mr. Kwood, >> yes. >> Item number five, I recommend that the board of education approve the resolutions authorizing the filing of an original board revision complaint as attached. >> Move. >> Second. >> Mr. West. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Item number six, I recommend that the board of education approve the following board leaison
058and reps as attached. >> So move. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Mr. West. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks, Steve. Uh, superintendent's recommendations. >> Yeah, thank you. Item number one, I recommend that the board approve the following Oak Hills local school district student trips as attached. >> So, move. >> Yes. Item number two, I recommend that the board approve the AE agreements with SHP as attached. >> So move second. >> Yes. Mr. West. >> Yes. >> Item number three, I recommend that the board approve the resolution for a flexible schedule for Oak Hills High School students for standardized testing as submitted. So move. >> Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Item number four. I recommend that the board approve the public education week resolution as submitted. So move. Second. Mr.
059West, >> yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rer, >> yes. >> Item number five, I recommended the board approve the following personnel actions A through K as amended. >> West. >> Yes. Mr. Mr. >> Yes. >> That's it for superintendent recommendations. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. We did not have any decisions signed to the address of the board. Any topics for board discussion tonight. Okay. So, I'd like to make a motion that we go into executive session for the consideration of the purchase of property or the sale of property. This premature disclosure of information would give an unfair competitive bargaining advantage to a person whose private interest is adverse to the general public interests. >> So move second. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kler. >> Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Okay. So uh
060we'll go to executive session now. We will not be coming back. So thanks for coming this evening.