Higher than expected real estate property tax collection improves financial outlook at South Range schools

By ROBERT CONNELLY

rconnelly@vindy.com

NORTH LIMA

The South Range school district’s five-year forecast has improved since it was last approved in October.

District Treasurer Jim Phillips explained two factors led to a better financial outlook: an influx of $307,348 in real-estate property taxes, some of that through delinquent property taxes collected; and a savings of $320,000 from not spending a contingency fund. Those two were the majority of a $776,594 improvement in this year’s funding.

This influx of money has held off a projected deficit for two more years.

The district is projecting a surplus of $1,437,321 at the end of this school year followed by $1,129,746 next year; that drops to a projected deficit of $162,311 in the 2018-19 school year or fiscal year 2019.

“A forecast is a snapshot in time,” Phillips said, cautioning that finances could change depending on the state budget.

School officials said in February when Republican Gov. John Kasich released his budget that there was an estimated $212,000 state funding cut to South Range schools. Phillips said while the Ohio House of Representatives restored the schools’ funding to previous levels, the budget has yet to be finally approved.

Phillips sets aside 3 percent of the projected expenditures – this year it was $345,650 – as a contingency in case anything would happen. The district spent about $25,000 of its contingency fund this school year. At the old buildings, that helped fix a boiler failure one year.

There was an improvement of about $423,000 in revenue from October to May this year, with Phillips pointing to the increase of real-estate property taxes collected as the biggest change.

The school district implemented “phase one” of budget cuts after the defeat in May of an additional three-year school levy. This included cutting 2.5 jobs. These were Dana Veneskey, an elementary-school music teacher; Mark Giesy, a middle-school industrial technology, or Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), teacher; and Christine Yukech, a part-time science teacher.

Giesy recently was hired as a high-school teacher to replace a retiring teacher.