CINCINNATI — Mt. Healthy City Schools could be in big financial trouble if they don’t make changes.
Superintendent Dr. Valerie Hawkins went over the district's five-year budget forecast at their monthly finance meeting. The most recent one was completed in February of this year.
“Unfortunately, it came back worse,” Hawkins said. “Almost $7.5 million we would be in deficit spending by the end of this year.”
The November 2023 forecast showed over a $5 million budget deficit by the end of the year.
If the district doesn’t make any changes it will have over a $90 million budget deficit in 2028.
Hawkins said the district was placed on fiscal watch by the state. She said they have been working with the Ohio Education Department on a plan to reduce costs.
“We will look at their suggestions and try to make some changes on their suggestions,” Hawkins said.
She expects to get that report by the end of April.
The Board of Education passed a resolution asking the state to place them on fiscal emergency. Hawkins said it was denied because they couldn’t go from fiscal caution to fiscal emergency, so the state placed them on fiscal watch. They gave the district some time to offset the $7.5 million deficit, but the district couldn’t. So, the board passed another resolution asking to be placed on fiscal emergency, which prompted state auditors to review the district’s finances.
“When you go into fiscal emergency, the state of Ohio will loan you money that you do have to pay back,” Hawkins said. “They also set up a commission that is based at the state level. It does incorporate local business owners, parents, the mayor gets to appoint someone and they work with the school district looking at their expenses trying to help us get back to a place where we are not deficit spending.”
Hawkins said they are not currently looking into a levy to help them with costs, but she said that could change in the future.
She said a drop in enrollment has hurt the district.
“If you look at the 2021 school year, you have 4,172 students. This last year 2,806. That’s for a variety of reasons,” she said. “Our funding is also linked to our enrollment, so that difference of 1,366 is approximately almost $11 million.”
Earlier this month, the district announced it would be laying off 80 employees, including 67 teachers.
“Next year, class sizes will increase to the state minimum which is 25 and that has been the primary reason, as you’ve heard in the news, that we have made some other additional cuts that is based on raising that class size,” Hawkins said.
She said the district was planning on not replacing teachers who left or retired before the state got involved. At the time, they were not planning on cutting any positions.
To help get them out of the red, the Board of Education approved open enrollment. The district also got approved for three career technical programs, which means they will get extra funds per student for those programs.
The district also plans to reduce some of its purchased services to save money.
The budget deficit only relates to the district general fund budget which includes: transportation, utilities, curriculum, athletics and salary and benefits. Hawkins said the salary and benefits cost the most.
Hawkins was not available for an interview after the meeting.
