North Royalton School officials have just closed the books on the 2020 fiscal year financials. At the time of this writing, they expect that they will have ended on a positive note, partially as a result of an amendment to an Ohio bill that would reduce district funding.
“Thanks to House Bill 164, the North Royalton Schools will see their reduction of funds decrease from $1.1 million to approximately $642,500,” confirmed North Royalton City Schools Superintendent Greg Gurka. The bill was introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives on March 25, 2019 and in the Ohio Senate on November 14, 2019. It passed on June 10, 2020 in the Senate with amendments and in the House, which concurred with the Senate amendments on June 11, 2020. State Representative, Thomas F. Patton, was a co-sponsor of the bill, as well as Senator Matt Dolan.
Dolan helped to reduce the planned cuts in an amendment to House Bill 164 that capped the state funding reductions that was proposed by the Governor. The amendment capped the amount to six percent for the next school year, when offset by federal CARES dollars allocated to K-12 schools. “I fully recognize the economic pressures facing local governments and school districts during the mandatory closures of businesses during the pandemic. I realize the hard work facing city halls, county governments, school districts to maintain quality services with declining revenue. I worked with all parties from the Governor on down to fairly distribute Ohio’s resources and federal dollars,” said Dolan.
“We are very grateful for Mr. Dolan’s sense of fairness with complex issues. We really appreciate his leadership,” stated North Royalton School District Treasurer, Biagio Sidoti. Due to the passage of House Bill 164, the North Royalton School District will break even, after the Governor’s reduction and the passage of the House Bill. “We should end the year with a positive.” said Sidoti.
The North Royalton District would have had a reduction of $1.1 million dollars in the state’s funding allocation for fiscal year 2020, which ends June 30, 2020. With the passage of House Bill 164, the district will still have a decrease, but it will now be about $642,000.
“This is still a reduction of approximately a little more than half of a mill to our operating budget,” said Gurka. “Unfortunately, when the state reduces our per pupil funding, it places more of a reliance on our local property taxes. Our goal has been and will continue to be to provide a high quality education for our community and to do so in a fiscally responsible way. We adjusted our budgets beginning in March for the fiscal year end due to COVID-19 We will continue to examine all areas of our programs and make adjustments as necessary. We also know that our current construction projects, once complete, will provide us with cost-saving measures such as combining two kitchen operations into one at the High School beginning this school year and combining three elementary schools into one for the start of the 2021-2022 school year.”
“When COVID-19 first started in February, the district had adjusted the budget quickly, going forward, said Sidoti. For the 2021 fiscal year, he noted that the district will “present various options the students will have and try to fund them to the best of our abilities.”
Sidoti said that although nothing has been formally stated yet, he expects the amount for fiscal year 2021 will be about the same as 2020. He stated that they are awaiting word from the Governor. District officials are in the process of budgeting for the 2021 fiscal year, with a formal budget to be presented in September. The fiscal year for the District runs from July 1 through June 30.

By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer