Van Buren Local School 217 South Main Street Van Buren, Ohio 45889 Volume: 35 No.: 6 Knightly News February 2015 Published nine times per year. Superintendent's Office — 299-3578 High School — 299-3384 Elementary — 299-3416 CAPACITY MEASURE, LOCAL TAX EFFORT, BIENNIAL BUDGET Jenessa Miller Named Ohio Middle Tim Myers, Superintendent Summary – The state claims we are a wealthy school district. The residents are only contributing ½ of what School Student of the Year they are capable of supplying to the schools. Therefore, the state is going to provide less money to the Van Van Buren Middle School eighth grader Jenessa Miller was Buren Schools and the local tax payers should pay more to make up the difference. named the Ohio Middle Level Association female student of the The Governor has laid out his new State Biennial Budget proposal and the outlook for the Van Buren Schools is not good. In the proposed budget the Van Buren School District is ranked as the 589th wealthiest out year. In March 2013, Jenessa was diagnosed with idiopathic sco- of 610 school districts in the state of Ohio. The Van Buren Schools are included in the group of wealthy school liosis. In order to straighten her spine, she underwent spinal fusion districts located in communities such as Sharonville, Sycamore, and Indian Hills in Cincinnati, Upper Arlington, surgery and ensured a six-week recovery. Prior to having surgery, in Columbus, and Beachwood, Independence, and Cuyahoga Heights, in Cleveland. Jenessa presented an idea to her language arts teacher, Mrs. Stevie What, in relationship to school funding, makes the Van Buren School District and community so wealthy that Brown. She asked if she could share information on scoliosis to the we can be put in the same category as Indian Hills? Primarily, it was the property wealth in the district divided entire middle school student body as all students in grades 6-8 are by the number of students in the district. Property wealth is determined by the industrial plants, warehouses, businesses, and home values in our district. Traditionally, the taxes paid by the businesses and industry in our screened for scoliosis every winter and many don’t understand what district helped to lessen the tax burden on the homeowner. they are being screened for. In the new proposed budget, the Governor is adding a personal income factor with the property value creat- Over the course of a week, Jenessa presented to the school by ing a “capacity measure” to determine the wealth of the district which will be used to determine the amount of grade level. Her presentation was recorded so that our incoming financial aid the state should supply. The rest to be supplied by the residents of the school district. The personal sixth graders can watch it each year. As she researched scoliosis, income factor is determined by comparing the average income of the residents in the school district to the aver- she was able to better understand her own diagnosis and treatment. age income statewide. Currently, the state is listing the statewide average income at approximately $32,000 with the residents of the Van Buren School District having an average income of approximately $42,000. As you can Jenessa was described by teachers and peers as brave, compas- see, the new state calculations make us look even wealthier. sionate, caring, and dedicated to school and friends. Howard Fleeter of the Ohio Education Tax Policy Institute put together a study to determine the local com- Jenessa accepted the award at OMLA’s conference on February munity’s tax effort toward their school district. In his analysis, an index number greater than 1 indicates district 13 and addressed over 900 middle school educators from across residents are making an above-average effort, while those less than 1 are making a below average effort. It was Ohio during their general session. Jenessa is the daughter of Chris- very interesting to compare the index rankings to the local school rankings I used in the recent levy campaign to show how much tax burden was on the residents of our neighboring school districts in comparison with the tax tina and Eric Miller. burden on the Van Buren District residents. The rankings were eerily similar. Last November I stated that the residents of the North Baltimore District had the highest tax burden sum- marizing their local taxes (property and income) to be the equivalence of approximately 54 mills. They were the highest. I had the Van Buren tax burden at 29.65 mills, the lowest in the area. Under Dr. Fleeter’s index analysis, North Baltimore’s index number is 1.6492, approximately 1-2/3 of the state average. Of the other local school districts, 7 are above the average of 1, one is percentage points from the average of 1, and the Van Buren School District is the lowest by far with an index number of 0.5209 indicating, by state calculations, that the Van Buren residents have the capacity to be contributing nearly twice as much to the school district. The proposed new state education budget reflects that the local residents should be paying twice as much to the school district and lowering our already meager state funding even lower. Additionally, this budget reflects a renewed reduction of the reimbursement money that we are currently receiving from the state to offset the Tangible Personal Property Tax that they took away from our district. This reimbursement could be completely gone by 2018. Currently the state contributes approximately 13% of our total revenues. The new budget puts the state contribution at 6.4% next year and 5% (the state lowest) in the second year. When you look at the addition of the much needed all-day, every-day Kindergarten and the loss of current as well as any possible additional state funding, it is not hard to see that the district is sliding into a negative budget very quickly. This will mean additional local taxes, as the state is suggesting, or a cutting of staff and programs. Most state budgets are changed between first proposal and legislative adoption. Yet, the basic principles remain. While the negative impact to the Van Buren District may not be as drastic as initially proposed, you can be sure there will be a drastic, negative impact. Van Buren Local School Nonprofit Organization 217 South Main Street U.S. POSTAGE Van Buren, Ohio 45889 PAID Published by Van Buren Local School Van Buren, Ohio Address Service Requested Permit No. 3 Page 2 Knightly News February 2015 Treasurer News HS News Money Matter$ Cheryl Swisher, Treasurer Van Buren Academic Boosters Proudly House Bill 64, the biennial budget bill for fiscal years 2016-2017, was officially introduced on February 11, 2015. House Bill (HB) 64 (proposed by Governor Ka- Present December Awesome Knights sich) could significantly impact Van Buren Schools financial stability. In HB 64, Van Students are chosen monthly by each high school teacher based upon one or Buren School, stands to lose the equivalent funding of 1.55 mills. Even though more of the following: Academic Achievement; Positive Attitude; Class Partici- HB 64 increases funding per student, it reduces Tangible Personal Property (TPP) pation; Letter Grade Improvement; Outstanding Performance. tax reimbursements to the District. These reductions in TPP contribute most of the All students chosen monthly will be recognized for their efforts with a gift certifi- 11.1% loss in funding over the next two fiscal years. The below chart shows the cate and a certificate of recognition from the Academic Boosters organization along impact on Hancock County Schools: with having their picture posted on the wall of Knights outside the high school office. Estimated % Change Estimated % Change Total Change in in Core Change in in Core Equivalent Core State Aid State Aid Core State Aid State Aid Mills FY 15 to FY 16* FY 15 to FY 16 FY 16 to FY 17* FY 15 to FY 16 Lost/Gained ARCADIA $(53,615) -3.0% $(53,079) -3.1% Loss 1.07 ARLINGTON $(56,782) -2.0% $(56,214) -2.0% Loss 1.34 CORY-RAWSON $(96,885) -3.5% $(69,723) -2.6% Loss 1.37 FINDLAY CITY $1,250,655 5.1% $1,451,615 5.7% Gain 3.49 LIBERTY-BENTON $(118,166) -2.3% $(116,984) -2.4% Loss 1.32 MCCOMB $(75,440) -2.0% $(74,686) -2.0% Loss 1.26 RIVERDALE $(101,684) -1.8% $(100,667) -1.8% Loss 1.33 VAN BUREN $(116,760) -4.9% $(250,280) -11.1% Loss 1.55 VANLUE $(32,462) -2.3% $(32,137) -2.4% Loss 1.30 * includes phase-out of Tangible Personal Property (TPP) tax reimbursements In a statement released by the Office of Budget and Management, it explains the district will potentially lose funding based on our “capacity measure”. Our ca- pacity measure shows how much money the community can afford to support the local school in relation to other schools with a lower capacity rating. The capacity December – Back Row: Branden Bell, Brendon Ring, Brandon Shepherd, Justin Phil- measure uses property valuation and median income as a measure to reflect a lips, Nick Devore, Matt Cooper, Thomas Wolford, Kialynne Bland, Jordan Trenkamp. district’s ability to meet its own needs. Front Row: Jessica Roberts, Sarah Dishong, Andy Godzak, Sadie Piehl, Kristin Con- Below is the excerpt from that statement: ner, Shaynah Selario, Morgan Drake, Brianna Barnhisel, Lauren Shaw. Not Pictured: Kara Conine (Guo Kelan), Rebekah Frampton, Mary Beth Kane, Breanna King. “Formula Adjustments to Better Reflect Local Capacity: The budget includes a firm commitment to efficiently and effectively distribute re- sources through the formula to the districts with less capacity to raise th revenues locally.