NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio — Even after laying off over 20 staff members last school year, North College Hill City Schools is still facing a $2 million budget deficit.
“We can’t stop the bleeding, because we’re doing everything that we can do,” said superintendent Dr. Eugene Blalock.
That is why the district is bringing back the 1.25 percent income tax levy to the November ballot. The exact same levy voters saw back in May.
WATCH: Why North College Hill City Schools say the levy needs to pass in November
WCPO 9 West Side reporter Marlena Lang asked Blalock how he and the district plan to pass the levy this time around.
“We’re forming a levy committee, which we didn’t have last year,” said Blalock. “I think if family members understood, or got an understanding of why we’re going for this tax levy, they’d be more apt to come out and support us.”
So why is the district facing this deficit and going for the levy? Blalock says it’s all because of state funding cuts to public schools, which lost them over $6 million.
“We’re a district that receives about 40 percent of our funding from the state, so when the state cuts our funding, you know we really don’t have another choice but to go out to our taxpayers,” said Blalock.
If the levy fails in November, Dr. Blalock says cuts this time will have to be much deeper.
“You’re looking at us cutting more teachers, up to 10 teachers, and now we have to start looking at extracurricular activities,” said Dr. Blalock. “We live in North College Hill where they don’t have a Boys and Girls Club, they don’t have a YMCA close, so the North College Hill School District is the hub.”
Over the last few months, WCPO 9 has heard concerns from residents and those who work in North College about there not being enough places for kids to go after school, or things to do. Dr. Blalock shared those concerns and is scared of the possibility of extracurriculars being cut.
“We’re setting our young, our youth, our students up for failure. Because if they don’t have anything to do, they’re gonna hang out, and idle minds, idle hands cause mischief,” said Blalock.
And it’s not just a concern for Dr. Blalock; Christel Brown works across the street from North College Hill Intermediate and High School. She’s worried that without athletics or arts for kids to be a part of after school, it will lead to more violence in the streets.
“When they’re bored, they find things that they have no business finding, you know. they’re angry with each other, they’re fighting with each other, we don’t wanna see that. That’s one of the things that we’ve been trying to calm down,” said Brown.
Blalock added that another concern is bigger classroom sizes if more teachers are cut, something they’re already seeing this school year. He says this will lead to more work for teachers and less one-on-one help for students with special needs this school year.
