Last school year, a dedicated team of Indian Hill School District residents who comprised the community-based Finance Steering Committee and the Facilities Steering Committee delivered comprehensive recommendations for our Board of Education to consider. These reports were the culmination of research into our operations and facilities needs that first began in 2018.
And the work to Build a Brave Future has not stopped.
Members from each of those committees have formed a 2020 Facilities Vision Task Force. The task force is divided into three main teams working on: plans for a complete rebuild of Indian Hill Middle School and enhancements to Indian Hill High School; plans for enhancements to Indian Hill Elementary School and Indian Hill Primary School; and, plans for what the transition would look like for students and staff during a proposed construction timeline.
Guided by outside consultants, and in conjunction with District administrators and staff, those volunteers will develop a draft plan working within the framework first defined by the recommendations of the Finance Steering Committee and Facilities Steering Committee.
The task force will present this plan to the Board of Education before the end of 2020. The work of our dedicated volunteers is appreciated. We look forward to sharing the vision they are creating in the near future.
Our needs remain real.
Over the years, the District has had to divert funds from the daily operating budget to provide for building maintenance, upkeep, and upgrades needed throughout the District’s campus. The last operating levy was more than 25 years ago. The District continues to operate from levies passed in the 1980s and earlier with a near-zero inflationary increase.
Additionally, we are also taking into consideration the financial impact of COVID-19. For school districts, the pandemic has created a situation of an uncertain financial future in terms of state funding. This spring, due to COVID-19, we saw a significant and immediate shortfall in the State’s revenue which was passed on to the budget items, such as school funding, and the Indian Hill School District endured an immediate loss of more than $200,000. We still do not know the continued impact of COVID-19 on our District finances because this pandemic is not over yet.
In the meantime, we continue to look for ways to operate in a fiscally conservative manner while maintaining the excellent educational services you expect and deserve.
As always, 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.
Sincerely,
Mick Davis
Treasurer
Indian Hill Exempted Village School District
Posted September 21, 2020