CINCINNATI — Several local school districts are turning to voters to help fill significant budget gaps this May.
Mount Healthy, New Richmond, Fairfield and North College Hill school districts are each asking for new tax levies that leaders say are critical to keeping programs and staff in place. Without new funding, the districts say they will have to make tough decisions regarding staff cuts and program reductions.
Watch below to see a breakdown of all the levies for districts in the area:
North College Hill
In North College Hill, voters will decide on a 1.25% earned income tax levy as the district looks to close a shortfall of more than $2 million. The district has not had an operating levy on the ballot for more than 20 years.
In March, the district laid off 18 teachers and five staff members.
Superintendent Dr. Eugene Blalock Jr. said funding has dropped significantly, with the district going from $8 million to just $1.7 million from the state. The proposed levy would cost about $1,250 a year for every $100,000 in income.
"What it won't affect is those individuals who are on fixed incomes," Blalock said. "As far as disability, retirement and receiving a pension, it will not affect those individuals. So we went with the earned income tax levy so we wouldn't put a strain on those individuals who are pretty strapped, pretty much like the school district,and they don't have money coming in or increases coming in. So that's the reason we went with the earned income tax levy."
Blalock said funding has dropped significantly, with the district going from an expected $8 million to just $1.7 million from the state for next year. He said the district receives 72% of its funding from the state.
"This has everything to do with how Ohio legislators have decided to defund public education," Blalock said.
He said that the state decided to fund vouchers of about $1 billion, which impacted the fair school funding plan for the district. Blalock said the funding issue is systemic, noting that 595 out of 660 school districts in the state will be on the ballot within the next three to five years.
If the levy fails, Blalock said he estimates the district will have to cut at least 10 more teachers and five more educational aides, leading to larger class sizes and affecting the special education population.
Extracurricular programs are also on the table for cuts, such as band, drama and athletics, including football, basketball, volleyball, softball, bowling and cheerleading.
Blalock added that he is also a resident of the district and understands the burden on taxpayers.
"This is going to affect my household also, so we understand the fact that we have to go out and we have to ask taxpayers and our families and our community to give a little bit more to support public education and to support North College Hill School District," Blalock said.
Blalock urged the community to support public education and vote out legislators in Columbus who do not support it.
Mount Healthy
In Mount Healthy, voters will decide on a 0.75% earned income tax levy.
The district has been in a fiscal emergency since April 2024, when officials discovered an accounting error. That financial crisis has already led to the district cutting more than 100 staff positions and school transportation. A 3 mill levy failed in November, with just over 53% of voters saying no.
District Superintendent Sarah Wilson said extracurriculars, arts programs and music programs are what is left to cut if this levy fails. The last operating levy to pass in the district was in 2003.
New Richmond
On May 5, New Richmond Exempted Village School District voters will decide on an 8 mill levy that would last five years. District officials said the levy would cost an extra $280 per $100,000 of assessed home value per year.
In December 2025, the district submitted its fiscal precaution plan following voters' rejection of an income tax levy. The district is still feeling the impact of the closure of two major power plants nearby. The Beckjord plant closed in 2014, and the Zimmer plant closed in 2022, shrinking the district's revenue.
"Those both accounted for about 37% of the total revenue that was generated here in the school district," Superintendent Paul Daniels said in October.
Chief Financial Officer Brett Floyd said the district is not scaling back on any of the reductions in the field plan, regardless of whether the levy passes in May. Changes coming to the 2026-2027 school year include a reduction of five teaching positions, mostly through retirements.
Fairfield City Schools
Fairfield City Schools is facing $4.5 million in budget cuts that could eliminate field trips, reduce staffing and cut English learner tutors unless voters approve a new income tax in May.
On March 5, the Fairfield Board of Education unanimously approved a financial reduction package and placed a 1.25% school district earned income tax on the May 5 ballot. The district has not passed an operating levy since 2011 and is projecting a $9.5 million operating deficit this fiscal year.
Superintendent Billy Smith said the district has already reduced 26 positions over the last three years.
"It does include reducing 15 positions through attrition for savings of about $1.6M. That is the largest savings on the reduction list," Smith said. "We think that number may get all the way up to 20. Those reductions will occur, pass or fail."
If the tax fails, the district's proposed cuts include eliminating all school field trips, reducing elementary building hours and eliminating weekend use, cutting eight custodial positions, reducing 10 English learner tutor positions and modifying the fee structure for extracurricular participation to include a $100 increase.
If approved, the 1.25% earned income tax would allow the district to substantially maintain current programming and services through June 30, 2031.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
A previous version of this story erroneously stated the cost of the proposed North College Hill levy. The number has been corrected.
