By Mick Davis, CFO/Treasurer, Indian Hill School District
At the Indian Hill Board of Education Meeting on Tuesday, November 26, I shared an update of the District’s five-year financial forecast. This important planning tool is required by the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce and presented twice a year, in November and May. The forecast aligns our income and expenses to our District’s current and future goals with respect to academics, operations, and facilities. This update will provide you a look at how our forecast has evolved based on four key variables: state funding increases, property value tax impact, investments and inflation, and conservative fiscal management.
State Funding Increase
As we first communicated in May, we will see an increase in revenue due to a rise in state funding, which is a celebration for our District, as this is the first time in years we have seen a substantial increase. The increase has the potential to double our funding over time. It is important to note that while we will see the increase, state funding only makes up approximately 7 percent of the District’s overall budget.
Property Value Tax Impact
Owning real estate within the Indian Hill School District has proven to be an excellent investment for our taxpayers. With the recent property valuation, our investors saw an increase of up to 30 percent in their property values due to the current state of the housing market within our District. While this is excellent news for stakeholders who will realized increased value, we want to make it clear that the rise in property value did not equate to the Indian Hill School District receiving equivalent additional funding. Looking to the future, it is important to note that our District has reached a point of taxes levied so that the percentage increase would directly correlate with the amount of money we would receive. This will have a positive impact on our revenue.
Additionally, I want to again note that the Ohio General Assembly is looking to reform the impact of property tax valuations; this could have significant impact on our forecast. We continue to monitor this situation and will provide you any updates.
One point of celebration for all taxpayers is the expiration of our 2001 bond in 2027. You may remember back in 2019, a share of what residents paid on this bond expired – reducing the bond debt by 1.74 mills. Additionally, it is important to know that in 2016, the District refinanced those 2001 bonds to achieve taxpayer savings of $8.5 million. That savings for residents was in the form of reduced millage paid toward the bonds.
Investments & Inflation
New for this November forecast is a celebration of successful negotiations between our District and our Indian Hill Educators Professional Organization, which resulted in a commitment by our world-class faculty to the District through 2028. We have the best educators, and this is an investment we absolutely celebrate. As we did in May, within this forecast we need to again recognize a substantial increase in purchased services. The services our District are required to provide to our students by law has increased, due to an increase in student needs. This is an investment our District must make to properly serve students. We also continue to monitor the impact of inflation on all of our expenses, including energy and outside contracts; everything has increased due to inflation. As we communicated in May, an increase in both enrollment and programming resulted in the investment our District made starting in August of 2024 to add a limited number of positions to ensure we maintain expectations for class sizes and also to expand our offerings in K-12 leadership development, STEM, and the arts.
Continued Conservative Fiscal Management
We continue to look for opportunities to provide our taxpayers savings with attention to conservative fiscal management. In October, the District celebrated the announcement by Battelle and the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN) awarding Indian Hill Primary School, Indian Hill Elementary School, and Indian Hill Middle School a combined $22,500 in grants to enhance science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in classrooms. The OSLN grants followed the September announcement of the District being awarded $272,733 from the state Department of Education & Workforce Ohio’s Career Technical Education Equipment Grant Program. The Indian Hill School District will implement student programming centered on career-learning within the next school year, as part of the grant expectations.
The Indian Hill School District earned an additional six grants awarded in October of 2023 for a combined $30,000 to expand STEM learning projects through the Ohio STEM Learning Network Classroom Grant Program. The grants helped fund projects at Indian Hill Primary School, Indian Hill Elementary School, and Indian Hill Middle School. During the 2022-2023 school year, the district received $300,000 in Ohio K-12 School Safety Grants Awarded for construction and $15,000 in grants through the Ohio STEM Learning Network STEM Classroom Grant program. Additionally, the district continues to celebrate savings through the implementation of an Energy Savings Program, which guarantees more than $150,000 in savings annually.
Ours is a story of fiscal responsibility without compromising the excellence you expect and deserve. Again, thank you for the continued support of our schools. You can count on continued timely financial updates. Should you have any questions about our District’s finances, please contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Mick Davis
CFO/Treasurer
Indian Hill Exempted Village School District