CENTERVILLE — Proposed budget cuts and teacher cuts for Centreville City Schools were a hot topic among city residents Wednesday night.
Residents gathered to hear the district’s proposal to cut more than 40 employees.
The listening session, which included two presentations and several informal meetings to discuss school finances and possible future steps for additional funding for the district, was held in the Klein Elementary School auditorium.
“I wouldn’t mind paying more in taxes for the district,” city resident Rachel Duvall told News Center 7. “Whether or not we think about the long-term impacts of that will obviously depend on how much the district asks for in taxes if this question is added to the ballot in November.”
Duvall said it will strain the system after hearing that districts can’t make budget adjustments until 2026. “If we don’t add anything for another two years, I think that could have a pretty significant impact on students.”
Duvall said he is thinking about teachers and staff who will be affected by the district’s budget cuts and how it will affect current and future students.
The school district proposed a 5.9 mill levy for voters’ consideration last November, which would raise $12.9 million for operating expenses (5.2 mills) and permanent improvements (0.7 mills).
Four months later, the district proposed yet another revenue issue on the ballot, a 3.9 mill levy, to raise $11.2 million for district operations. The March levy would increase property taxes by $137 per year for every home assessed at $100,000, according to the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office.
Voters rejected both.
The district then announced in January that it would have to lay off 41 teachers through phased cuts and would not receive an increase in its fiscal year 2025 budget.
The district has more than 8,000 students and more than 1,100 teachers and support staff.
The last time voters approved additional funding for Centreville schools was in 2019.
“The way Ohio schools are funded means that any cuts made in 2024-25 will not eliminate the need for additional funding,” the district’s superintendent, John Wesney, said in a social media post.
“Our school district receives very little funding from the state, so we rely on local property taxes for the majority of our school funding. On top of that, the amount of money we receive from locally voted levies each year is frozen by state law, which means our revenues remain relatively flat and, as costs increase, we must continue to make significant cuts or ask voters to approve additional funding in order to maintain our quality educational programs and services.”
According to an announcement on the district’s social media, several community engagement events are scheduled for the remainder of July. One such event will be held on Thursday, July 11, at 5 p.m. at Weller Elementary School (9600 Sheehan Road).
