Solon Schools React to State Budget

Short-term pain, but a better long-term picture.

That's the way Solon school officials describe the impact of Ohio's recently signed two-year budget on the city schools.

Solon Schools will have to deal with a nearly $2.6 million loss in tangible personal property tax reimbursements – $1.279 million per year for the next two years. But the school system also saw its $2 million basic state aid losses restored in the final budget.

Over the long term, Solon schools stand to lose $22 million over the next eight-plus years. 

But that's much better than it stood months ago, when Gov. John Kasich first proposed his budget plan.

At that time, the schools stood to lose about $2 million in basic state aid and $54 million over the next eight-plus years.

“We really accomplished something great with the outcome of this budget,” said Superintendent Joe Regano. “All of our work through lobbying and the intensive grassroots contact campaign was without a doubt the reason our financial picture under this two-year budget is 180 degrees from what we were looking at in April. 

Solon residents were outspoken against the budget cuts, coming out en masse in April to a public forum to learn about the proposed cuts, which Solon schools described as "devastating."

Regano said the residents deserve tons of credit for the budget outcome.

"We absolutely could not have done this without the support and engagement of our community," Regano said. "The efforts of our citizens in helping to demonstrate the devastating impact of the proposed cuts were invaluable.”

Regano said the schools will be able to weather the cuts because of a number of moves the schools have made. For the next year, school officials reduced 25 positions.

A new three-year contract with the teachers union also helps, with the teachers accepting pay freezes, benefit cuts and other reductions.

Regano said district officials and residents will have to stay vigilant to make sure the phase-out of the tangible tax does not return to future budgets.