Public school districts across Ohio say they’re running out of money. From the largest city districts to the smallest ones in urban and rural communities, schools are preparing to make cuts.
Five Ohio public school districts are under state fiscal oversight, meaning they’re in a financial crisis or on the brink of one. Of those, Mt. Healthy City Schools outside of Cincinnati is the only with the most severe fiscal emergency designation.
There, many of the reductions public districts are considering for the future are already happening.
The school district found itself in a massive financial hole just over a year ago when its newly hired treasurer discovered accounting errors by her predecessor, revealing the district would enter deficit spending in a few years. The school system was placed in a state of fiscal caution by the Ohio auditor.
A later state audit uncovered more mistakes, and soon district leaders discovered Mt. Healthy had spent several million on funding for building projects and hiring new teachers with money they didn’t have.
Mt. Healthy’s Board of Education was forced to hand over their decision-making powers to a state-run financial planning commission. The commission has the final say on what the district needs to cut to eliminate its $10.7 million deficit.
“$10.7 million in a district where our whole budget is $45 million is just catastrophic,” Mt. Healthy Superintendent Valerie Hawkins said.
The district took a loan from the state to cover its deficit and keep its school system operating for the year, but the loan needs to be paid back within two years. So, Mt. Healthy started downsizing in a hurry so it could pay off what it owed.
Around 100 full-time employees were laid off. The district added participation fees to its once-free athletics program, cut its transportation down and shrunk its graduation ceremony, among several other reductions.
These reductions have been rippling through the district this year. Patty Kinser, a high school math teacher at Mt. Healthy for 20 years says because many teachers were either laid off or resigned, her class sizes exploded.
“This year I have 180 [students] in five classes. All of my classes are over 30. Most of them are closer to 35,” she said.
Kinser says that’s made it harder for students that need extra help to get the attention they need, and it’s tightened the schedules of many teachers.
A student perspective
Students are noticing the changes too. Mt. Healthy senior Dashayla Wordlaw and her classmates say they don’t know every detail about the financial crisis, but they know the school is broke.
Wordlaw is a multi-sport athlete, so she was upset about having to pay fees during her last year of high school.
But the biggest let down for her was the change to graduation.
Mt. Healthy used to hold its graduation inside the University of Cincinnati’s basketball arena. This year it’ll be at a smaller venue inside a local church, so instead of having the whole family there, only a few members of her family will see her walk across the stage.
“It sucks. It sucks bad because I worked really hard, I think,” Wordlaw said. “And I want them to be able to see that, but they can’t.”
For younger students like Mandy Trinh, it’s the future of the school district that has her the most concerned.
“I’m only a sophomore, so I’m not sure when I graduate if I’ll have the resources I need."Mandy Trinh, Mt. Healthy student
Mt. Healthy is looking to cut school security, eliminate substitutes at the middle and high school levels entirely, and may charge fees for kids to attend preschool. The district is also considering renting out its early learning center to bring in more revenue.
Even with those cuts, school leaders would still need to find millions more to cut to reach solvency.
Trinh worries that by the time she’s a senior, her academic opportunities will be slim.
“I’m only a sophomore, so I’m not sure when I graduate if I’ll have the resources I need,” she said.
School leaders claim they’re running out of things to cut to meet their budget. Mt. Healthy has a levy on the ballot this May. Even if it passes, it’ll only make a dent in the deficit, so the school is looking to Columbus for a lifeline.
Conversations at the Statehouse
Republican Ohio State Senator Bill Blessing, whose district includes Mt. Healthy, introduced a bill in late 2024 that would turn the school’s $10.7 million loan into a grant, effectively resolving the debt and clearing a path to solvency. But the bill didn’t get far before the end of legislative session.
Blessing claims legislators, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and the state auditor are wary of such a bill because they’re worried it might give other public school districts the greenlight to spend money without consequences.
“We have found there’s been some general hesitancy towards this, and their reasoning is, ‘Well, there is a certain degree of moral hazard to bailout,’” Blessing said.
Still, he thinks a bailout is what Mt. Healthy needs, so he plans to reintroduce the bill later this year.
If it comes at all, the financial relief likely won’t arrive until later this year or next year, unless it gets slipped into a modified version of the state’s budget bill.
As it stands now, it appears that budget may likely hurt Mt. Healthy’s financial situation rather than help.
An analysis of Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed biennial budget bill reveals the proposal would cut current funding for traditional public schools by $103.4 million over two years while adding funding to programs for charter and private schools.
“If this were just Mt. Healthy, that's one thing. But what happens when you start seeing more and more districts in this predicament?”Ohio State Sen. Bill Blessing
The superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools says DeWine’s proposal would reduce the district’s funding by $27 million over two years. Superintendents in Cleveland and Columbus have voiced similar concerns.
Blessing says while Mt. Healthy’s situation is far from the norm, other school districts could find themselves in a similar situation if their funding dries up.
“If this were just Mt. Healthy, that's one thing,” he said. “But what happens when you start seeing more and more districts in this predicament?”
Springfield Local Schools in Akron has been under fiscal watch for nearly four years and Trimble Local Schools, a small rural district in Athens County, was placed under fiscal watch in January after spending more money than it had. Trimble’s superintendent says before long it’ll likely turn into a fiscal emergency.
Magadore Local Schools and Ravenna City Schools outside of Akron are listed as under fiscal watch.
With all the uncertainty around the future of the U.S. Department of Education and the frequent failure of local school tax levies around the state, Blessing says Ohio’s school funding issue will need to be addressed in the statehouse.
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