State adjustments mean changes in school funding

By STEVE COLON

Expositor Editor

An adjustment made by the Ohio Department of Education will mean less money for Wauseon and a bit more for Pettisville in next year's state formula funding.

Wauseon Exempted Village School District will get around $97,000 less next year after an enrollment estimate by the ODE was off the actual enrollment figures. Pettisville will receive about $14,000 more next year. No other county schools had adjustments to their funding.

However, some state schools will have drastic changes. Groveport Madison Local Schools will be faced with nearly $750,000 less in funding next year. On the other hand, South-Western City Schools will have nearly $1.2 million more to work with next year. Both districts are suburban Columbus schools in Franklin County. Other schools in the state saw similar drastic changes.

The correction was made after ODE officials learned that their enrollment estimates for about 300 schools statewide were either too high or too low.

The funding formula was designed to hold school districts harmless in potential lost funding with the tangible personal property tax is phased out and the new commercial activity tax is brought online.

"Some districts did not get enough money while some got more than enough to be held harmless," said ODE spokesperson Scott Blake. "(The adjustment) was to make sure that no district lost money or, in turn, no district gained revenue."

The changes were made as part of the state capital budget bill signed by Gov. Strickland last week.

Blake said the ODE uses enrollment projections, population trends and discussions with districts to base their estimates.

"We try to come up with something that looks reasonable," he said. The ODE has final say on enrollment projections, not the local districts.

"As the ODE was figuring, they used projections that were not accurate," said State Rep. Bruce Goodwin. "Hold harmless was meant to do a good thing, but obviously, someone's pencil wasn't sharp enough."

While the change in Wauseon's funding is not nearly as drastic as some state districts, it will still impact the bottom line.

The ODE calculated 12 fewer students than were actually enrolled in Wauseon. While that seems like a fairly accurate guess based on nearly 1,900 total students, those 12 students mean $97,808.

"Am I disappointed we lost $97,000 in funding? Sure," said Wauseon treasurer Karen Dameron. "Our goal has always been not to go back to the voters for more money sooner than we have to, but $97,000 is a lot of money."

She noted that if Wauseon had actually seen a decrease of those 12 students, they would have been eligible for transitional aid which means a district will not receive less funding than it did the year prior. She said most of the adjustment was due to the district being given transitional aid dollars by the ODE.

Blake was not aware how many of the 300 districts that saw adjustments were in a similar situation with transitional aid.

Blake cited several factors out of the ODE's control that may have led to nearly half the Ohio school's enrollment projections being off, either high or low. Plant closings forcing moves, foreclosures forcing residents to move to where there are more apartments available and the local economy all may have been part of the changes, he said.

The hold harmless funding, as it stands now, will continue through 2012. At that point, it will decrease until it is completely phased out in 2017.

Check out the Expositor website at www.ourtownsnews.com for a complete list of all state schools and their adjustment figures.