Dear Bexley Families:

Time is critical in sharing our concern regarding proposed state legislation that will fund Ohio’s public schools in the state’s next two-year budget.

This message is a call to action with hopes you will urgently share your concern about changes to school funding that are pending. Why is this crucial? In the next few weeks, the Ohio Senate will hear testimony and consider the Ohio House of Representatives’ budget proposal that calls for drastic changes in how public schools would be funded.

Last week, we shared a story explaining this concerning proposal. Not only did the House remove funding methods from the approved 2021 School Fair Funding Plan and guarantees to fund schools at Fiscal Year 2025 levels, it also passed a provision to clawback school district cash reserves in districts that have cash balances in excess of 30%.

Legislators may have passed this without fully understanding how schools are required to manage their funds for extended periods of time or that many spend down their reserves over the time of their levy cycle. At the period in time when legislators reviewed Ohio school districts’ cash reserves, Bexley Schools’ cash reserve was about 55% of our total Fiscal Year 2024 expenditures.

Maintaining a cash balance minimizes disruption to our exceptional student programming, maintains consistency for our students and staff, and allows us to plan for the long term. At times, our cash reserves have allowed us to “weather the storms” of unexpected expenses or interrupted revenue streams.

We encourage you to read again last week’s explanation of how the current school-funding proposal will impact Bexley Schools. To start, we offer three reasons why this is so important:

1. Our November 2024 incremental levy took an approach to spend down our cash reserves over a five-year period, but the Ohio House-passed measure would negate the community’s majority vote from that ballot issue. Without the levy-approved funding and with a requirement to spend down our cash, we may have to go back to our voters sooner than we had hoped because we would have to address future negative cash balances more quickly.
2. Over the last 17 years, Bexley Schools’ cash balance has fluctuated with 25% swings over a 12-month period beginning to end. Legislators, unfortunately, are only looking at a low moment in time and not honoring our need to predict and plan   ?  and maintain a cash balance.
3. Being forced to maintain lower cash balances also could negatively affect our bond ratings at a time when we may need to consider issuing bonds in the coming few years.

What Can You Do? Please call or send an email within the next week, by Friday, May 2, urging the Ohio Senate leadership and members of the Senate Education and Senate Finance Committees NOT to move forward with the Ohio House-passed school-funding proposal.

Use the buttons below to access a sample message you can send and to access the contact information to call or email Senate members.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jason Fine, Superintendent

Kyle Smith, Treasurer/CFO

Sample Message to the Ohio Senate

Senate Contact Information

Published April 24, 2025 | District Newsletter

Bexley Schools Treasurer/CFO Kyle Smith updated the Board of Education during its April Board meeting about the current school-funding proposal passed by the Ohio House of Representatives and how it could significantly impact Bexley Schools in a negative manner.

The current proposal essentially removes funding methods for the School Fair Funding Plan that was passed in 2021 and guarantees funding at Fiscal Year 2025 levels. Secondly, and most alarmingly, Treasurer Smith said, is a provision to clawback school district cash reserves in districts that have cash balances in excess of 30%.

Support for the clawbacks came about, Treasurer Smith said, when legislators looked at Ohio school districts’ cash reserves at a particular point in time and “proclaimed that schools should not be permitted to carry large cash reserves.” He said legislators may have done so without fully understanding how schools are required to manage their funds for extended periods of time or that many spend down their reserves over the time of their levy cycle.

At the period in time legislators reviewed Ohio school districts’ cash reserves, Bexley Schools’ cash reserve was at about 55% of our total Fiscal Year 2024 expenditures.

The following are points Treasurer Smith presented to the Board regarding why this proposal is damaging for Bexley Schools and Bexley residents.

• The proposal erodes local control and our ability to address the minimal funding we currently receive from the state.
• Bexley Schools manage revenue based upon our levy cycle, which is a process by which school districts propose and receive voter approval for property tax levies to fund their operations. School districts would no longer be able to depend on well-planned and properly timed levies as done in the past and could be forced to request more levies.
• While our November 2024 incremental levy took an approach to spend down our cash reserves over a five-year period, this proposal would negate the community’s majority vote from that ballot issue. Without the levy-approved funding and with a requirement to spend down our cash, we may have to go back to our voters sooner than we had hoped because we would have to address future negative cash balances more quickly.
• Over the last 17 years, Bexley Schools’ cash balance has fluctuated with 25% swings over a 12-month period beginning to end. Legislators, unfortunately, are only looking at a low moment in time and not honoring our need to predict and plan   ?  and maintain a cash balance.
• Revenue from Bexley’s school district income tax has seen volatility at multiple points in time. In 2024, we saw a reduction of 18% from the previous fiscal year, equaling a $2.1 million loss in revenue. This fluctuation caused a reduction in our cash reserve, which could have resulted in a 4.7% decrease in spending or the loss of 16 staff members if we had reacted to balance our budget immediately.
• Within the last 5 years, we have seen significant delays – in the millions – in revenues. Unexpected delays can have a drastic impact on our ability to pay employees and bills in a timely manner.

“I fully recognize that property taxes for individuals are also our concern,” Treasurer Smith also told the Board, “And I’m not saying that there’s no room for that discussion.” In fact, he referred to Bexley’s state Senator Herschel Craig’s Senate Bill 22 that Mr. Smith believes is a sensible approach to property tax relief for those who need it.

“To take an approach to cut local funding off from our students at a faster rate than their little legs are growing is incredibly irresponsible, in my opinion,” Treasurer Smith said.

The Ohio Senate will present its budget proposal soon and once passed by the Senate, any differences with its bill and the House budget bill will be ironed out in a joint Conference Committee. Upon agreement, the legislation would go to the Governor for signature. The state’s budget must be approved by July 1.

For more of a detailed explanation on why cash balances are important for school districts, read a 2022 whitepaper from the Ohio Association of School Business Officials. Treasurer Smith was a collaborator in this work.

The Ohio House of Representatives’ Budget Committee currently is considering the state’s next biennium budget proposal, which includes a considerable cut to funding for Ohio’s public schools because of how the funding is being calculated.

During yesterday evening’s Board of Education meeting, Bexley Schools Treasurer Kyle Smith read a Letter to the Community through which he explains the proposed cuts to funding and the considerable amount of money Bexley Schools stands to lose in future budget years.

“I feel that after going through the fall and asking our community to support our schools with their own local dollars, I think it's important when there are opportunities for us to advocate for our taxpayers at the state level that we should,” Treasurer Smith said during the Board meeting.

Mr. Smith’s letter includes a call to action for Bexley taxpayers, staff, and others throughout the state to contact legislators and encourage them to fully and fairly fund public education in Ohio.

In his letter, Mr. Smith explains that while the governor and the legislature support implementing the next phase-in of the Ohio Fair School Funding Plan in the next budget, the way the funding formula is being calculated will result in 87% of public school districts in Ohio, including Bexley Schools, to lose state revenue.

Specifically, the governor’s proposal calculates the average per-student cost of education using 2022 numbers. On the other side of the calculation, the same proposal uses updated 2024 property values, which increased at extraordinary levels overall. By only updating one side of the funding formula, the state’s proposal does not take into consideration the remarkable inflation we are experiencing to operate schools, whether through health-care costs, utilities, or goods and services.

You are encouraged to read Treasurer Smith’s letter in full and follow up with legislators, by phone call or email, to voice your support for public education and the need to fully and fairly fund public schools in Ohio.

It is important to note that Bexley’s state legislators, Rep. Dontavius Jarrells and Sen. Hearcel Craig, have a history of strong support for public education. Taxpayers should encourage them to work hard to persuade others in the General Assembly to vote in support of fairly funding the Ohio Fair School Funding Plan after properly calculating funding formulas that take into consideration current inflationary costs to educate public school students.

Please do not delay! The budget proposal is expected to proceed out of committee in early April! Contact information for legislators is in Mr. Smith’s letter.

During yesterday’s Board meeting, members of the Board of Education also approved a resolution calling upon the legislature to fairly fund Ohio’s public schools. The resolution also addresses the fact that while the state is reducing funding to public schools, the budget also calls for an increased allocation to private and charter schools.

Bexley Schools Treasurer Kyle Smith presented the November 2024 Five-Year Forecast to the Board of Education last week. The Five-Year Forecast, which is updated and submitted to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce each May and November, is the primary document used to assess the financial health of the school district.

In his Board presentation, Treasurer Smith discussed the following:

Wild Cards

Changes in law that affect state or federal funding are expected after any election, resulting in a lot of unknowns. “Within Ohio, there have been talks about property tax adjustments or changes. So that is still a hot topic for our legislature that could come back and impact our funding,” Mr. Smith said. 

Revenue

Funds to be collected from Issue 36, the newly passed incremental property tax levy, are included in the November forecast. The impact of the incremental levy will see revenue increase over the five years of this forecast. Revenue variations, Treasurer Smith explained, will be seen because property taxes are collected on a calendar year-basis, which staggers the district’s fiscal year. Half of the five mills will be collected in Fiscal Year 2025, but the full five mills will be collected in the calendar year.

Revenue projections from the district’s School District Income Tax are on target to what was projected in May 2024, and the new forecast increases the school district income tax assumption up 3% for this year, slightly higher than what was projected in May.

School district income tax revenue is projected to increase 3% in each of the next four fiscal years, with the exception of FY 2026. The forecast recognizes that economic indicators suggest slower growth within a year, calling for an assumption of a 2% increase in FY 2026 in income tax revenue.

State funding accounts for 16% of our revenue. For the next two fiscal years, our assumption calls for flat funding from the state, as there is no guarantee the legislature will continue to fund the Fair School Funding Plan beyond FY25. The new Ohio General Assembly will convene in January. And until the time that the legislature addresses the Fair School Funding Plan and its intended six-year phase in of funding, we will continue to project flat state funding.

Expenditures

It is expected that inflation will continue to affect school expenditures on items including supplies, course materials, equipment, and utilities.

Employee benefits, mainly health care, are becoming the area of expenditures that is outpacing inflation. For example, the school district will experience a 21% increase in the cost of employee healthcare benefits next year.

Cash Reserves & Related Policy

Deficit spending is projected throughout the Five-Year Forecast and will result in declining cash-balance reserves. With continued deficit spending, it is expected that the cash balance will be depleted in future years.

In 2022, the Board passed a cash-reserve policy addressing operating cash on hand. Specifically, the policy calls on the Treasurer to alert the Board if a forecast projects less than 70 days of operating cash within the first four years. The November 2024 forecast presently shows 82 days of operating cash by the fifth year as a result of Issue 36 funding.

“While deficit spending is not ideal and must be closely monitored, this approach was expected in the planning of the recently passed incremental levy, Treasurer Smith said. “This levy cycle approach allows for residents to keep more of their cash and provide revenues to the schools as expenditures rise”

The complete five-year forecast document is available on the district’s website.

• 8 Fast Facts on District Finance & the Nov. 5th Levy
• Board-Approved Statement of Facts
• Levy Facts Website
• Spending Comparison

• Estimate the Tax Cost

1. Issue 36, the levy request on the Nov. 5th ballot, is only for day-to-day operations of Bexley Schools. If passed, it would be for a continuing amount of time.

2. Revenue received from voter-approved levies is fixed. House Bill 920, passed in the 1970s, specifies that voter-approved property tax revenue that goes to schools does not increase with inflation or from property-value increases.

3. The school district’s Five-Year Forecast – a state-required document – projects Bexley Schools will be out of money in fiscal year 2028, without additional revenue.

4. Bexley Schools receive about $1,900 per student from the state and even less money comes from the federal government, mainly through grants; more than 75% of Bexley Schools’ funding comes from Bexley residents through property taxes and a school district income tax.

5. More than two-thirds of our expenditures fund student instruction and support. This equals $.68 cents of every dollar we spend. The remaining expenditures provide staff support, utilities, and ensure safe and secure facilities. Data from the state shows our spending is proportional to that of all other public school districts in Ohio. As shown in the comparison charts below, we spend more than the state average on student instruction-related expenses, including teacher salaries; we spend about the same as the state average for administrators; and we spend less than other school districts on buildings and operations. The portion we spent on buildings and operations is less than most other public schools due to our lower transportation costs. See the comparison charts below for a complete picture of our expenditures.

6. It is expected that 30-60 staff positions would need to be cut to cover a projected $4-$7 million annual revenue shortfall if Issue 36 does not pass, according to a budget report presented to the Board in September. Cuts would go into effect during the 2025-2026 school year and would be among all staff categories – teachers, maintenance, custodial, secretaries, administrators, support staff, special education paraprofessionals, and regular building substitutes.

7. Bexley Schools employ 356 faculty and staff members – nearly 74% are teachers and special education staff members. Another 21% are support staff like custodians and secretaries, while administrators total slightly more than 5% of the total staff.

8. Bexley’s last operating levy was approved by voters in 2019. During that year we received feedback from residents asking the district to find ways to ask for smaller requests. The incremental levy in Issue 36 allows the schools to receive funds when needed – not upfront like a traditional levy – thus lessening the taxpayer’s immediate financial impact.

Bexley Schools’ Treasurer/CFO Kyle Smith created information on how to determine your property tax estimate for Issue 36. Click on the image below to enlarge the graphic if needed.

Bexley Schools’ operating levy will appear on the November 5th ballot as Issue 36. The schools’ levy webpage includes quick links to online tools from the Franklin County Auditor, which will help you learn your home’s value, estimate your taxes, and estimate the cost of the levy for your property.

You also can find information about Bexley Schools’ finances and how the district’s spending compares to other districts in the area and around the state. A third section also presents information about how schools are funded in Ohio.

Additional Resource: Levy Statement of Facts

Bexley Schools will host a District Financial Update meeting for the community on Tuesday, October 15. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at Jeffrey Mansion and is expected to last about an hour.

During this meeting, Bexley Schools Treasurer Kyle Smith and Superintendent Dr. Jason Fine will share information about the state of Bexley Schools’ finances and why the Board of Education placed a levy on the November 5th ballot. Treasurer Smith will also explain the levy cost to property owners.

Image is on a background of bright blue and dark blue and says Save the Date October 2024 with a calendar showing a circle around the date of October 15

The Bexley Board of Education approved a Statement of Facts yesterday evening related to the district’s levy request on the November 5th ballot. The levy, which will appear on the ballot as Issue 36, is a request for a 5-year incremental levy to be phased in between 2025 and 2029. 

• What Is This Levy for?
• Is This Related to the Current District Facilities Planning?
• What Is This Levy Type? It Seems Different Than What’s Been Done in the Past.
• Why Is the District Asking for More Revenues?
• What Happens if the Levy Fails?
• When Will the District Come Back to Request Additional Funding?