Treasurer, Dawn Jacobs, would like to address the recent financial update announcement made by Governor DeWine and how the state budget cuts will affect Van Buren Local Schools. While a budget cut of 2.11% may appear small, the State of Ohio actually calculated the reduction based on our per pupil spending from last year which was $12,229.74. This equates to a reduction of our state foundation revenue by $273,690.00 (25.67% of our annual gross revenue) for the 2019-2020 school year. The State of Ohio is essentially sending us an invoice and expecting us to generate the funds to pay this bill in the next month.
The only avenue the district has to generate these funds is to use money from the local tax dollars collected in tax year 2019.
We know that there will be an additional reduction of our state foundation revenue for the 2020-2021 school year as well. We will receive additional information on how this additional reduction will impact the district in the summer of 2020.