At the Indian Hill Board of Education Meeting Monday, May 20, I presented an update to the District’s five-year financial forecast. Presented twice a year, the forecast is a tool that aligns our income and expenses to our District’s current and future goals with respect to academics, operations, and facilities. This important planning tool is required by the Ohio Department of Education.
Within the forecast, we continue to see near-flat revenue growth (near one percent per year, within the forecasted timeline). One percent per year is well below the rate of inflation mark. Inflationary costs affect us on the revenue side, as well as the expense side as things get more expensive over time but we do not see a corresponding increase to match on the revenue side. As I communicated with you in the fall, we are continuing to monitor this as it does cause concern for us into the future.
Additionally, Indian Hill receives minimal state education funding – in fact, just a little more than four percent of our revenue is from this source. This is something we do not anticipate ever increasing. The majority of our revenue comes from property tax – more than 90 percent. Additionally, many of our residents may not realize our last operating levy was passed more than 25 years ago, and it was not renewed by the Board of Education in 1998. During this time, our schools have had to absorb funding cuts, changes in tax laws, and inflationary cost increases. This continues to strain our District’s ability to maintain current educational services, facilities, and learning opportunities that are key to the mission of our District. We continue to operate from levies passed in the 1980s and earlier with a near-zero inflationary increase.
As we have communicated as part of our year-long District
facilities assessment process, our District is absorbing more needed capital improvement projects that come with aging facilities and systems, especially within Indian Hill Middle School. The estimate to maintain the near three football fields of flat roof on that building is $150,000 a year on a 15-year cycle. This year, due to the work of the Facilities Assessment Task Force, along with the
District Steering Committee, we have made a decision to fix only those sections of the roof deemed absolutely critical. This year, that total will run just less than $50,000.
Finally, outside the forecast, it is evident that the District did a great job managing the last bond issue and has structured the refinancing of bonds to achieve taxpayer savings of $8.5 million. That savings for residents comes in the form of reduced millage paid toward the bonds. In addition, a significant share of what residents pay on this bond expired at the end of 2018 – reducing the bond debt from 3.24 mills to 1.45 mills.
I will continue to provide you timely updates. I thank you for your continued support of the excellent educational services we provide within the Indian Hill School District. Should you have any questions about our District’s finances, please contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Mick Davis
Treasurer
Indian Hill Exempted Village School District
Posted May 22, 2019