Huber Heights schools are asking for a $7.8 million operating levy on the May ballot that would cost $241.50 per $100,000 in appraised property value.
This school year will be the first that the district is projecting to be in deficit spending. The district expects to spend $611,899 more than it brings in, according to its five-year forecast submitted in November.
Kim Barnhart, president of the Huber Heights Education Association, asked the board to consider other cuts. She said she could not imagine a district without as many administrators or without any elementary librarians.
“Please make sure that we all have a seat at the table in the decision that we are making,” she said.
The board unanimously approved the proposed cuts. They are:
- Central office administration cuts include the assistant treasurer, technology department administrator, school psychologist, curriculum supervisor, public relations supervisor/superintendent administrative assistant, administrative assistant in operations, administrative assistant in human resource and administrative assistant in student services.
- Five elementary school principals and one junior high assistant principal would be cut from building administrator positions.
- Several educator positions would be terminated, including 10 elementary teachers, four junior high teachers, six high school teachers, Wayne High School dean of students and the dean of Warrior Academies, the district’s alternative school. A new staff hire would be cut, along with one Wayne High School guidance counselor.
- Pay-to-play fees would increase to $750 with no family cap.
- Preschool tuition would increase to $3,000 per year, or $375 per month
- The district would decrease department budgets by 10%, decrease building budgets by 10%, eliminate release time for staff development to reduce substitute costs, eliminate holding a gifted program in a separate building, move a bus purchase to the permanent improvement fund instead of the general fund, increase school and course fees by 20%, eliminate facility use rentals, cut two custodial staff on the second shift, one maintenance person, one school resource officer and decrease a security officer contract.
- Other cuts to staff would include two technology paraprofessional staff, instructional support personnel, classroom support personnel, restorative practice personnel at the junior high and high school and all five elementary librarians.
Huber Heights has one of the largest cash balances in the Dayton region among local school districts, with about 84% of the district’s yearly budget in the bank, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis from August.
It is more common for schools to have a lower cash balance before asking for a school levy, but Enix said that board policies set in place after major cuts to the district in 2014 made the move necessary. Board members have stressed that it took a long time for the district to come back from that overspending.
The district’s treasurer, Penny Rucker, said previously there was no responsible way for the district to continue spending at current levels and later turn it around.
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