In-depth coverage
The Springfield News-Sun digs into important stories about government spending, including recent coverage of road construction costs and city and county budgets.
By the numbers
$1.3 million: Annual savings combining Northeastern’s two high schools could generate
$81 million: Projected savings in Pennsylvania by moving from 500 school districts to 100
$36 million: Annual savings in Maine from its consolidation efforts
Check out at SpringfieldNewsSun.com: An interactive map of Clark and Champaign County school districts to compare spending levels and student populations.
Schools facing declining populations must look for ways to save money and consolidation is often one way.
While many Clark and Champaign County districts have consolidated internally, combining districts isn’t likely, many school leaders said, even though several studies have recommended it as a way to save millions.
Districts have gotten creative — some consolidating into fewer buildings like Greenon did last year; some sharing administrators, special education staff, maintenance or transportation.
“The number of kids coming into schools is less then what is was 10 years ago,” state Sen. Chris Widener said. “So every district is not going to be able to do and support what they’ve always had with their budget, and they’re going to have to share and collaborate.”
The Springfield Republican pushed in the Statehouse for financial incentives to motivate schools to share more services, but he said the majority hasn’t come around to that concept. A bill was introduced in the Ohio House last year that would have given consolidated districts access to $10 million loans to build new facilities if needed, but it died.
“There’s a generalized recognition that we may have too many governments in Ohio,” said Greg Lawson, policy analyst for the Buckeye Institute.
The conservative think tank conducted a study on school mergers in 2011 that found if the four non-urban school districts in Marion County combined into one county-wide district, they could save $2 million a year.
But for students, parents, alumni and athletes, the idea of merging districts threatens lost identity and pride.
“I like that we’re a small school,” said Elena Blankenship of South Charleston, who has two children attending Southeastern Local Schools where enrollment is about 750. “It’s small enough that the teachers care.”
But Lawson questioned if people are willing to pay for that.
“If you love your mascot that’s great, but do you want to pay higher property taxes, or keep going to the well to keep paying more and more and more to keep something afloat,” he said.
Community discussions
Consolidation was the word on many people’s lips in Northeastern Local School District in March when a consultant’s efficiency review recommended combining the district’s two high schools to save more than $1.3 million annually.
Nine months later, after voter approval of an income tax that will generate $4.1 million annually, district leaders say they’ve bought more time, but re-configuring the buildings isn’t off the table.
The district is making a plan for the spring to engage in community discussions on the matter, Superintendent John Kronour said.
“I don’t believe overall that the community would be supportive of consolidating in our current buildings,” he said. “We are definitely on the list for an (Ohio Facilities Construction Commission) project, so the possibility of building a building somewhere else,” could be another option, he said.
If residents decide consolidation is off the table completely, then Kronour said the district will have to figure out a way to pay for its current structure into the future.
A 2010 study conducted by the Greater Ohio Policy Center and the Brookings Institute recommended creating a Base Realignment and Closure-like commission to cut the number of school districts in Ohio from about 600 to 400. It proposed having no district with fewer than 2,500 students.
Currently, more than 400 districts in Ohio fall below that mark, including about 150 districts with less than 1,000 students each. Locally, Southeastern, Greenon, Northwestern, Clark-Shawnee, Mechanicsburg, Triad, West Liberty-Salem, Graham and Urbana school districts all have less than 2,500 students.
Blankenship doesn’t believe very many Southeastern voters would be on board with any type of consolidation. Even a previous effort to put kindergarten through high school into one new building through a bond issue in 2010 failed by more than 80 percent.
In Champaign County, neighboring Mechanicsburg, Triad and West Liberty-Salem school districts have about 800, 900, and 1,100 students respectively, and their high schools maintain fierce athletic rivalries.
“For most communities, it’s very important to have a basketball team to cheer for,” said Dan Kaffenbarger, superintendent of the Madison Champaign Educational Service Center. “I think that district mergers are going to be few and far between.”
Savings
The 2010 study cited other states that have studied or actually carried out consolidation efforts. Pennsylvania projected savings of $81 million by moving from 500 school districts to 100. Maine saved $36 million per year from its consolidation efforts.
Indiana’s governor made a mostly unsuccessful push in 2011 to force small schools to consolidate after commissioning a report that recommended eliminating all districts with less than 2,000 students.
The most recent district merger in Ohio, and the only one in at least the past decade according to Lawson, took place in 2014. Old Fort Local School District in Seneca County absorbed its neighbor and former rival, Bettsville School District.
Those two school districts fell well below the sizes most studies find are sustainable and efficient. The districts already shared a treasurer, the Toldeo Blade reported, and had discussed a merger decades before.
When they finally consolidated, Bettsville was in fiscal emergency and down to less than 150 students while Old Fort had about 450. The merger resulted in a savings of about $300,000 annually in salary and benefits for the districts, eliminated 10 jobs and closed one Old Fort school building, according to the Blade.
Not a silver bullet
But merging districts isn’t without drawbacks, the Buckeye Institute’s report found.
“Consolidation can work under the right circumstances, but it’s not a silver bullet,” Lawson said. “You can actually increase your costs if you do a consolidation unwisely.”
Costs could increase from collective bargaining agreements, he said.
“You might get rid of administrative staff and save money on one hand … but then what happens is that if everyone who remains gets leveled up to a higher collective bargaining agreement, some of those savings are not as big,” Lawson said.
There’s also a geographic issue to address the could impact transportation costs. Graham is the largest local school district by area, covering more than 180 square miles.
To cover the area, the district uses 20 bus routes on a dual routing system. Each bus travels its route twice each morning and twice each afternoon. Some students are on the bus for more than an hour each way, according to Matt Curtis, interim superintendent.
“We typically buy two new buses every year,” he said, at a cost of about $85,000 each. “In such a large district, costs for fuel, tires, maintenance, wear and tear, etc., are high.”
Combining facilities, sharing staff
Some local schools have found savings in restructuring facilities within their existing district.
Clark-Shawnee began a financial downsizing about five years ago that led to the closure of its kindergarten village, moving those students to the elementary schools.
The district is now beginning to explore options for new buildings, which could lead to a downsize, Superintendent Gregg Morris said.
The school board approved a contract this week to hire a design services company that will present options for maintaining, renovating or rebuilding schools.
The state will pay for a portion of new school buildings with a local match, but has specific capacity restrictions.
“We would not qualify for state funding with the number of buildings we have,” Morris said.
Two of the district’s kindergarten through eighth grade schools, Possum and Reid, both have nearly 600 students while the high school has 685. But Rockway only has about 250 students, including preschoolers.
Residents will have many opportunities for input as the process moves forwards, Morris said. He doesn’t see the district moving toward combining with any neighboring districts.
“This community values local control,” he said.
Greenon closed Hustead Elementary in 2014, moving all preschool and first grade students to Enon Primary and second through sixth grades to Indian Valley Intermediate.
Beyond cost savings, Superintendent Brad Silvus said having all students in the same grade level together is beneficial for teaching and learning. He believes a lot of people would oppose any type of merger with another district.
Greenon and Southeastern — Clark County’s two smallest districts — already share a number of administrators. Brad McKee works as treasurer for both districts, and they also share a psychologist and special education coordinator.
Southeastern Superintendent David Shea is also the elementary school principal. One person serves as both the maintenance and transportation director, he said.
“There are lots of dual roles in a small district,” Shea said.
But Greenon and Southeastern still have the second- and third-highest administrative expenditures per pupil in the county, behind only Springfield City School District, according to Ohio Department of Education data. And Southeastern’s instructional expenditures per student were the highest in the county in fiscal year 2014, at about $7,500.
That number reflects the district’s commitment to instruction, Shea said. Each district has its own priorities and he doesn’t see any consolidation in the near future for that reason.
“We do try to share services to keep our costs down. We’ve been fortunate to manage our monies and put them toward instruction,” he said.
Public education is doing a better job of sharing than ever before, according to Dan Bennett, superintendent of the Clark County Educational Service Center.
Ultimately what gets shared or consolidated is up to the individual community of each school district based on their values, he said.
“There’s a lot of value in ensuring that local control is in place,” he said. “I don’t know that there is a one-size-fits-all in that arena.”
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