NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio — North College Hill City Schools is facing a potential fiscal emergency, and Superintendent Eugene Blalock says cuts to staff, sports and academic programs are coming if voters don't pass a 1.25% earned income tax levy.
The district was notified this week that it must cut an additional $1.8 million from its budget or risk a deficit, part of a statewide problem affecting at least 40 Ohio school districts.
"If we do not pass these tax levies, I will have to make additional cuts on staffing," Blalock said. "So you're talking about at least 10 to 15 staff members, teachers, support staff and coaches."
The district started the school year having already eliminated 5th and 6th grade band, soccer, high school jazz band and several academic support programs.
Last year, North College Hill cut $2.1 million and eliminated 23 positions, 18 teachers and 5 support staff, after the state required the district to submit a plan to avoid deficit spending.
Now, the district has been told it must cut another $1.8 million, pushing it toward a projected $2 million deficit.
Blalock says the district has not had a levy in 20 years and that the financial crisis is not the result of mismanagement.
"The concern for me is simply there's nothing we did to get in this position," Blalock said. "It wasn't due to misspending."
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He points to the Fair School Funding Plan, a six-year funding formula signed into law in 2021, which is based on the actual cost of educating students and is designed to share that cost between the state and local communities.
According to Blalock, under that plan, North College Hill should have received more than $8 million this year. It received $1.8 million.
"We were defunded by the Ohio legislators by over $6 million," Blalock said. "If we'd just received the money that we were promised, we wouldn't have to go to our taxpayers and basically beg for them to pass an income tax levy."
Blalock is calling on state lawmakers, including State Rep. Cindy Abrams, who recently said legislators have increased funding for public education, to come to the district and answer directly for the shortfall.
"Cindy, Rep. Abrams, please come to North College Hill and explain to my Board of Education, explain to me, the superintendent, and explain to the city of North College Hill why we continue to have to ask our voters for money if the legislators are properly funding education," Blalock said.
If the levy fails, Blalock says the district will be forced to cut softball and baseball in the spring, and that additional sports, band, choir, drama and arts programs are all on the table. Class sizes, currently between 20 and 22 students, could grow to between 25 and 28. Professional development for teachers would also be eliminated.
Erica Black-Johnson, whose son is a senior and a basketball player at North College Hill, says the cuts would devastate students.
"The young people are our future; we have to invest in them regardless of where they come from," Black-Johnson said.
She says her son has already had to do more fundraising for athletics and worries about what deeper cuts would mean for his future.
"We're talking about our kids needing to develop skills and trades," Black-Johnson said. "Where are they going to get that if they don't have the funding to do that?"
Blalock says the district's administrative office runs with just 4 people: the superintendent, assistant superintendent, pupil personnel director and treasurer, and that there is little left to cut without directly harming students.
"We have a state report card that's coming out next week, and everything is based on academic achievement," Blalock said. "We were putting things in place to support our students who needed that extra support and that intervention. We had to cut every one of those programs."
He is urging community members to attend town halls being organized by the district's levy committee and monthly board meetings held on the second Monday of each month. He says he is not telling voters how to vote, but wants them to make an informed decision.
"I say, hey, come out and vote, and vote your conscience, but base it on the facts," Blalock said.
