Chauncey Elementary parents and faculty are scrambling for any alternative to the proposed school closure as the school board’s decision date looms.
But the Athens City School District needs about $7 million in to keep the school open — a sum that removes tax levees from the shrinking list of options.
The school’s fate will be decided at the Feb. 24 school board meeting and, though tax increases may seem to be a logical solution, Matt Bunting, Athens City Schools treasurer, said they are not a plausible answer to the budget deficit.
A levee that would increase taxes enough to generate $7 million would be attractive only to Chauncey parents and faculty, Bunting said.
Carl Martin, superintendent of Athens City Schools, said the school board has not even entertained the idea of a levy.
“(The Board does not) want to raise taxes,” he said.
Martin recommended closing Chauncey Elementary December, stating that moving students to The Plains Elementary would slash almost $1 million from the district’s budget.
Athens City Schools’ budget hole began to grow in 2004, when state funding started to dwindle after the Commercial Activity Tax replaced the tangible personal property tax, which brought in significant revenue for the district.
The Commercial Activity Tax handed that money over to the state rather than to the schools, Martin said.
The original plan was to phase out district funding steadily until 2019, but Ohio Gov. John Kasich accelerated the end date to 2013 in order to attract businesses to the state, Martin said.
Athens City Schools receives about $3,500 from the state per pupil while Trimble Local School District receives about $8,500. The funding numbers are based on property value, according to an Ohio Department of Education report.
Bunting said Athens should receive the most money because it has the largest population.
“Wealth is determined by property value, which is a flaw because there are more fair ways to determine who gets the most money,” Bunting said. “(The state) should factor in income.”
According to the Foundation Settlement Report from the Ohio Department of Education, Athens City Schools has lost almost $2 million over the past five years — from about $7.4 in 2007 to about $5.7 in 2012.
The amount of money that the state pays each district every year directly corresponds to the total amount of students enrolled in each district, said Daria Shams, ODE senior policy analyst.
The total amount of state aid has been on a downward trend since 2007 because the number of enrolled students in Athens city schools has decreased, he said.
“The more students you have in a district, the more funding you’ll have from the state to run the district,” said Shams.
Although tax levees cannot be a solution to the problem, other options were presented at the board meeting Jan. 11, including halting some school programs — such as art, foreign language and honors classes — to decrease spending.
“Other schools don’t offer (these programs) and that sets us apart,” Bunting said. “We’re trying to reduce our expenditures before we change things that make Athens different from other schools.”
