Edgerton Schools are looking at going into deficit spending as early as 2020 if current financial trends don’t change.
The Board of Education approved the fall five-year forecast and the trends point to wiping out reserves by the end of 2019
Further out there are more and more assumptions being made, Bill Blakely said.
Some highlights, overall there will be an uptick in property taxes this year. Next year Defiance County will have its taxes reevaluated and that will be a significant drop.
The year after that Williams County taxes will drop, Blakely said. But since the school gets 80 percent of its property tax revenue from Williams County, it will be in good shape next year.
Income taxes are down 2 percent from last year. A lot of the income tax comes from farmers so the district will have to wait a while to see what that will be, Blakely said.
He’s hearing the state will use the same funding formula, with some tweaks.
Enrollment is down by 11 students from the end of 2015-16. The downward trend is typical of most of the state other than the suburbs of Columbus, Blakely said.
As for expenses, payroll is up under the collective bargaining agreement and this year some positions have been added at the Elementary School.
The bottom line is that at the present time, the district will have a surplus of $963,000 at the end of 2016-17, but only $10,000 by 2018.
The district will have an imbalance of $300,000 annually for 2019 to 2021, Board member Darwin Krill pointed out.
Blakely told board members not to be overly concerned, and promised to watch the numbers as they unfold.
Since enrollment is tied to state aid, Blakely noted that birth trends are greatly impacted by where a child is born. If they are born in Ohio, their births show up in the data. If not, they don’t.
This determination impacts districts like Edgerton which border another state, xxxx said.
“I have to add those to the report,” Blakely said.
In other news:
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL REPORT: Kermit Riehle, principal
– The third grade test for English and Language Arts (ELA) and will take place in November to determine 3rd Grade Reading Guarantee competency of students.
– The STAR Reading for grades 1-3 and STAR Early Literacy for Kindergarten has been administered to all children to meet the 3rd GRG requirements. Any student who fell below the state-determined benchmark has been place on a Reading Improvement Plan. These plans were shared with the parents at this week’s parent-teacher conference, and include detailed remediation and accommodations for each student. Students falling below will take the spring test in order to pass 3rd grade reading.
Fire Prevention Week –Kindergarten students and staff have been visited by the Edgerton Village Fire Department with Fire Trucks and gear. Fire Chief Scott Blue, and other Edgerton volunteer fire department members visited the Edgerton Elementary School students Oct. 5 in preparation for Fire Safety week, Oct.10-14.
The board accepted the following baseball field donations:
Nucor $ 250
Edgerton Forge $ 250
Jason Dietsch Collision $ 500
Royalty Trucking $1,000
Edon Farmer’s Co-Op $1,000
Perry’s Excavating $ 700 (credit off of invoice)
The board transferred $ 39,125.00 from Permanent Improvement to Bond 264 Project for FY2017 Bond 264 Project payments.
The Elementary School Quiz Bowl will Oct. 20 at Hilltop School.
The students at the school collected 87,000 pop can tabs (57 pounds). Mrs. Siler’s class collected 42 pounds.
Red Ribbon Week- To heighten the awareness of Drug Abuse and Addiction, the elementary will be participating in the Red Ribbon Week, October 23rd – 31st. Ohio Parents for a Drug Free Youth sponsored the first statewide Red Ribbon celebration in 1988 and the campaign has grown larger each year. The Red Ribbon symbolizes a commitment to a healthy, drug-free lifestyle. My Events/Programming Committee has organized a very worthwhile week of activities for the kids. Mary and Victor Juarez are part of the elementary school’s assembly schedule.
Elementary Quiz Bowl – Held at Hilltop this year, October 22nd. Wendy Rice is the coach of the team again this year. Good luck to those participants.
Grandparents Day – Our Grandparent Day, October 7th, was a great success for the elementary school. With 305 grandparents in attendance, the morning was filled with activities such as a picture with their grandchild, a tour of the classroom, and lunch as a family as well. Thanks to Jodi Landel and the cafeteria staff for their incredible hard work to help in making this excellent community/public relations event a success.
Ronald McDonald House Support – The Edgerton Elementary took it upon themselves to raise support for the Toledo area Ronald McDonald House Charities. The students collected 186.5 lbs. of pop tabs in support of this worthy cause. The class who collected the most tabs will be awarded with a pizza party.
Perfect Attendance Award – Each month we encourage students to be at school every day by rewarding them with popsicles at lunch time.
Thanks to the PTO ladies who volunteer their time to help pass them out to the kids.
James Pruitt may be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com