The meeting is open to the public and public participation is encouraged.
New Richmond faces a certain loss of $8 million a year in revenue in 2016 due to utility deregulation and a possible additional loss of $1.4 million a year if Duke Energy wins its appeal on the amount of personal property taxes it pays. The $8 million deregulation payment represents 30% of the district’s revenue.Board members David Painter and Fred Heflin make up the board’s Finance and Audit committee. Scott Henderson, Jeanie Williams and Joe Middeler from the New Richmond business community, and parents Laura Jones, Rich Grogan and Mark Miller make up the financial planning committee to advise New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird, who has been asked by the Board to prioritize steps the board can take to offset the loss of revenue.
Current district revenue is $26,955,806 including funds put in escrow in case Duke wins its personal property tax appeal. Current expenditures total $25,331,121.
Superintendent Bird presented a list of 20 possible cuts and five possible revenues options at the Sept. 23 meeting of the committee.
The list of options included:
1. Reduction in primary level teachers.
2. Reduction in secondary level teachers.
3. Reduction in art/music/PE/technology teachers.
4. Reduction in custodians.
5. Reduction in aides.
6. Reduction in bussing to state minimum.
7. Reduction in the number of athletic teams offered.
8. Reduction in staff salaries.
9. Pay freeze for all staff.
10. Provide additional retirement incentive.
11. Mandatory furlough for hourly staff.
12. Fluid elementary boundaries that allow for yearly change.
13. Reduction or cuts in field trips.
14. Reduction in the purchase of curricular material.
15. Close/sell Market Street Building.
16. Close/sell maintenance building on Front Street.
17. Close/sell New Richmond Middle School.
18. Eliminate optional pre-school.
19. Do not hire sub custodians.
20. Adjust start of school day to save transportation costs.
Options for future revenue included:
1. An income tax levy.
2. A property tax levy.
3. Move inside millage.
4. Pay to participate for athletics.
5. Building levy for new music wing.
“We have an opportunity to manage the situation, or the situation will manage us,” Painter told the meeting, which included concerned citizens, parents and a representative of New Richmond’s classified employees’ union. “We have to make up $8 million and we can’t make it up in cuts alone.”
Heflin referred to a recent study by the Ohio Department of Education that said New Richmond as overstaffed compared to state minimum requirements and sees it as a positive for the district.
“Yes we are overstaffed, but it’s because we have a lot of AP (Advanced Placement) courses at the high school and because we prefer not to have 24 or 25 students in a classroom,” said Heflin. “The community has to ask, ‘Do we want to go to the state minimum or do we want to pay to have better results.’”
Bird, who hopes to have a report ready for the Board to review by early next year, asked the Financial Planning Committee to look over the lists of possible cuts and revenues and begin prioritizing items on the list at the Oct. 14 meeting.
“There’s a reason people want to come to school here,” said Bird, who noted New Richmond will receive $750,000 this year from its 131 open enrollment students. “It’s because we have great schools, great facilities and great teachers.”
“Our committee needs to look at the list of potential cuts and see what we need to do six months from now, a year from now and two years from now and then we can reevaluate.”
Superintendent Adam Bird removes the largest piece of New Richmond's revenue pie showing how much the district will lose in 2016 when the state stops making its $8 million annual deregulation reimbursement payments.
