BELLBROOK — More than 100 teachers, coaches, advisers and staff will be cut from the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek School District as the result of voters rejecting the district’s most recent request for additional money to run daily operations.
The vote tally from the Ohio Primary in March was 3,030 (48%) yes, 3,338 (52%), according to official results from the Greene County Board of Elections.
The rejection of the 5.7-mill operating levy means the district will now face nearly $2.5 million in Phase IV cuts and reductions the next two years.
“This is an incredibly disappointing outcome that will not only hurt our families and students, but also have a negative impact in multiple ways for the community as a whole,” school board President David Carpenter said in a prepared statement released Tuesday afternoon.
The Phase IV cuts are in addition to the more than $2.3 million in budget reductions between summer 2018 and Phase I and II reductions in 2019, and the Phase III reductions starting in the 2020-21 school year.
“While this is not the outcome that we believe best serves students and the needs facing our schools, we will do our part to honor the vote," Superintendent Doug Cozad said. "The fiscal reality; however, is that we simply cannot continue to make reductions without seriously impacting the quality of our students’ educational experience, and unfortunately, that is where we are right now.”
Bellbrook’s last operating levy was passed in 2015. The district placed an operating levy on the May 2019 ballot that failed. As a result, the district was forced to implement Phase I and II reductions. The district’s five-year forecast in November 2019 projected an almost $1.9 million deficit in the 2021-22 school year.
Recent cutbacks at the state level reduced the district’s state funding by $659,000 - about 11% of the district’s funding from the state - for the 2019-20 school year. A similar reduction by the state for the next school year is likely, Carpenter and Cozad said. If that occurs, the state will have cut nearly a cumulative $1.3 million in funding from 2019 through 2021.
Revenue for Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools is about $30 million -- the state kicks in about $6 million of that amount.
“Ultimately, it is up to our community to determine the type of schools it wants and, with what we are facing financially, that is directly affected by the outcome at the ballot box,” Cozad said. “Our district budget is already so lean that cuts are already hitting the classroom and the student experience. There is no easy way to say it - without the additional funds the district would have received through the passage of this levy, the reductions we now have to implement will be devastating.”
As for next steps, Cozad said the district must now begin processing the implementation of Phase IV cuts and reductions. The school board will have to determine how to proceed with obtaining additional revenue, he said.
Phase IV Reductions
These are some of the cuts Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools will make in the wake of the levy failure:
- 3 certified teachers and 4 classified staff will be cut through reduction in force
- 4 certified teachers and 2 classified support staff will be cut through involuntary transfers
- Eliminate high school bus service
- Raise high school participation fees to $300 from $200
- Eliminate 49 paid supplemental and/or athletic positions (some of which include advisers for science fair, diversity, Model UN/Mock Trial, jazz/pep band director, coaches and assistant coaches for freshman/reserve soccer, softball, boys/girls freshman basketball, freshman football, reserve/freshman volleyball and cheerleader adviser)
- At Bellbrook Middle, transportation will be reduced to the state minimum radius of 2 miles
- Eliminate 25 paid supplemental and/or athletic positions (football coach, advisers for Power of the Pen and National Honor Society to name a few)
- At Bell Creek and Stephen Bell, 11 paid supplemental positions eliminated (advisers to student council and math pentathlon to name a few)
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