COLUMBUS — School board members from across the state packed the room at the Columbus Convention Center to get a whiff of what might be coming in the Kasich era.

Gov.-elect John Kasich declined an invitation to speak to the Ohio School Board Association. So, OSBA Legislative Director Damon Asbury did his best to give guidance on how to deal with his former college fraternity brother.

Asbury described Kasich as a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” kind of man. “He’s not worried about hurting feelings. He’s pretty direct.”

He told them to send Kasich a list of unfunded state mandates that they could do without. “I think he wants them right away,” he said.

Asbury also suggested that they highlight where they already share services with other districts — a concept Kasich likes and wants to expand.

Cuts on the way

Kasich said on the campaign trail and shortly after his Nov. 2 win that he wants to make changes that will result in more money in the classrooms, but he has yet to detail what that means.

School districts are bracing for funding cuts and facing a potential scheduling nightmare.

Kasich has until March 15 to submit his budget, and the General Assembly must adopt a balanced budget by June 30. That leaves districts less than two months to make changes before 1.8 million students show up for classes in 3,382 public and 330 charter schools.

“I think they’re going to cut 20 percent or 10 percent at a minimum,” said Kettering City Schools Treasurer Steve Clark. Kettering has 7,200 students and an $80 million annual operating budget.

Effect of cuts to vary

But cuts in state funding could hurt some districts more than others, said Springfield City Schools Superintendent David Estrop.

“We’re trying to not overreact because here’s the dilemma: If the governor and general assembly were to say cut public school funding by 20 percent or 15 percent — pick a number — it doesn’t impact all school districts equally,” he said. “Some school districts get the bulk of their funding from local taxes and get very little from the state. Other districts, like Springfield, get a lot of funding from the state and not as much from our local tax base.”

So for districts with high property wealth, cuts in state funding might mean a 10 percent cut to 10 percent of their overall budget, he said. For districts like Springfield, it would mean a 10 percent cut to 75 percent of their total funding.

State Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, a 30-year veteran lawmaker poised to be House Finance Chairman, said that a year from now school district budgets will be a little bit tighter but hopefully not a lot tighter.

“Beyond that, there has to be a whole lot of process that needs to play out and the crystal ball is foggy,” he said.

He noted that leaders in the House and Senate and Gov.-elect Kasich see education as a top priority.

Strickland pushed through a funding model that lists ingredients needed for a good public education, puts a price tag on each item and then pulls together the state’s share for it.

It prescribed teacher training, student-teacher classroom ratios, all-day kindergarten and a beefed up state share of the funding pie. Strickland planned to phase the system in over 10 years as state revenue became available.

Kasich called it “over the rainbow” and an unfunded mandate on school districts.

Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said ditching the model would “move our education system backward and ignore the huge strides our state has made over the last four years.”

Anxiety not new

New administrations often cause anxiety among school administrators because so much rests on how the schools will be funded.

“Everybody is anxious, just like they were four years ago when Gov. Strickland came in,” said David Varda, executive director of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials, which represents district treasurers.

He said Strickland’s model lacked full funding during the down economy and as a result critics blamed the model.

Kasich, who sends his 10-year-old twin daughters to a private Christian school, also supports “school choice” — public funding for charter schools and giving vouchers to families that want to send their children to parochial schools.

Anti-teachers unions

Kasich has sent signals — both overt and subtle — that he is no backer of Ohio’s teachers unions, which supported Strickland in the hotly contested governor’s race.

“I am waiting for the teachers’ unions to take out full-page ads in all the major newspapers, apologizing for what they had to say about me during this campaign,” Kasich said. “But outside of that, we give everybody a chance.”

The Ohio Education Association represents 130,000 unionized teachers.

“The election is over now. It’s really time where we can find common ground with Gov.-elect Kasich,” said Mike Mahoney, OEA spokesman. “We want to listen first. The students’ success in school and college and their future careers is a goal we all share.”

In the meantime, school districts will be waiting to see what their future holds, said Estrop.

“We’re going to follow developments in Columbus very closely and then we will do what we have to do to continue to move forward,” he said.

Staff writer Megan Gildow contributed to this report.