Created for Residents of Loudonville-Perrysville Ex Vil School District.
This website was created to take number information from the Ohio State website on the 2024 CUPP report and illustrate the data in comparison to other school districts in the surrounding counties. Mostly it is to point out how expensive Loudonville-Perrysville district already is in comparison to other school districts. At a high level these charts show what they bring in and where the money is spent.
Ohio CUPP Report
POST ELECTION UPDATE 11/08/2024: I have been approached by people frustrated they still have old buildings and wanted to know if I had ideas to share. Here is what it would take from our local school board to begin the process without requiring taxpayers to be forced to pay for 37 years. Even though districts like Hillsdale and Waynedale got Pipeline money, they had the same thing happen just like LP just did, a large influx of money. East Holmes also figured out how to combine to one campus without asking for more money, costs savings was a big part. If going to one campus saves districts that much, because some should lose their jobs, less busing with efficiencies, then the savings of replacing one building and the 1 million per year extra they are now receiving makes a huge yearly payment! Secure bonds needed for the additional funding from the extra 1 million. Do things incrementally like only build enough to replace one of the old buildings at a time but plan for the expansion. Stop trying to bring OSFCC in who requires everything in the new building also be new, like kitchen stuff, desks, etc. What can be reused from the old building and save money, like gym flooring that was just purchased for Budd.One of the biggest things if the district is serious about this, they need to make it clear to the voters and the employees the extra income will not be spread out as increases in wages and salaries. This money needs taken out of the general fund and made unavailable for contract negotiations with unions and administrators, no opening of contracts that have not expired. The staff want to write in ad's about how important a new school is, this would be them proving it. If they would plan for one new building and build it in a way to add on later to replace the next old building, they should be able to put at least $5 million down and secure 1 million per year in bonds. Interest rates should be slightly lower and the interest payment would be substantially less. They need to find a practical architectural firm and abandon creating a work of art, build it plain, maybe even precast concrete, but lots of natural light, and AC. If you don't use state money can you get around the prevailing wage decree to save on construction costs? This will take much more effort and finding those practical people is going to be difficult but it is worth it, right?Things like bleacher replacements need to be pushed back onto the athletic boosters. The school should just rope off the bleachers if they are not safe and have the group receiving money from game admission’ pay for it. Why should the people who profit from it, not pay for it? The athletic boosters can run fund raisers the same as the FFA did for the greenhouse to raise funds. The school needs to separate out what is education and what is extracurricular. I think it was the concession stand years ago the boosters raised funds and had built and 'donated' to the school, from that time on the school must pay for all maintenance, that is absurd. It siphons money from the general fund that should be saved for a new building. Do not move any of the sports fields as that is always ridiculously expensive, see above on who should pay for that.
If you have other ideas and want to share, use the Contact Us and it may get posted up.If you think this might work then help it along and talk to your school board members! This doesn't take a levy and the only wait is as fast as planning can be completed. Just reading this and doing nothing won't help it happen.11/09/2024: The next evolution since the last round of school consolidations are looking at county wide districts with multiple buildings across the county but under one administration to lower overall costs and offer students more oppotunities. Capital projects would be much easier like the career center as the millage is small to build new, replace, or add on because the tax base is large. I do not think people have the stomach for it, yet, for numerous reasons. Public education will continue to become prohibitively costly and maybe eventually, residents turn to Columbus for funding changes. If the state knew what to do they would have done it already though. More parents are home schooling since Covid. Internet schools are becoming more of a thing now and that will continue to grow as they can offer subjects LP cannot. More juniors and seniors leave high schools now and go to college and graduate with an Associates along with the HS diploma having two years of college paid for. They return to their local district for band and extracurricular activities, that does not require much room. With small districts and people saddled with paying for new buildings and relatively small enrollment numbers, smaller districts cannot offer the services, the plethora of classes, and the specialty services that board members from LP have expressed in the past cost dearly.
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L-P Building Education Committee. © Scott Tucker. All Rights Reserved.
I asked the Treasurer from Hillsdale Local to send me the utility bills for the last few years. In whole years, 2018-2021 was averaging close to $115k per year. 2022 was a transition year so the data is not viable. 2023 was the first full year with students and the yearly cost was $335k that year. The Treasurer did state HVAC personnel did make a few visits to make adjustments and expects some savings from those adjustments. This is why the state requires a levy to be passed with a new school building levy, because it costs more to operate. If salaries and wages were enough of an offset, an operating levy would not be necessary.