By Paula Pyzik Scott

On May 15 the Ada Schools board of education approved the required 5-year financial forecast submitted by treasurer Kim Light. The forecast is required by the State of Ohio in May and November of each year. 

As Light noted in her presentation, it has always been challenging to provide a five-year picture when the state legislature provides a two-year budget. With this report, she noted that prospects for 2025-2029 are even murkier given a number of bills in the Ohio legislature that could dramatically reduce public school funding and change how schools can save for anticipated expenses. She expects the November 2025 update to be “more telling.”

Light recommends that the district be proactive in meeting any challenges, including a potential 30% cap on cash carryover that is currently under consideration by the Ohio Senate. She recommended transfers for known future expenses: buses, technology, athletics equipment, varsity gym updates, roof for the K-12 gym, asphalt parking maintenance and a severance (employee retirement) fund.

Other potential changes to Ohio funding for schools is the elimination of the fair school funding plan and more state money for school vouchers. The treasurer said the proposed funding changes could be “devastating” for public schools.

In her written report, the treasurer concludes, “Ada Exempted Village School District receives 56.28% of its funding for the district from state dollars, which is very beneficial to the overall operations for the education of our students.

"The district administration is grateful for the changes in the current state budget HB33 as it has reduced the amount that was deducted for programs that were not within the district's control. However, future state budgets funding will need to be watched since the full amount of the Fair School Funding Plan was not totally implemented with this budget and there is no guarantee for future increases in state budgets for FY26-FY29.

"HB96 the biennium budget bill for FY26-FY27 is currently moving through the legislative process. The Governor's version has now been changed with the House version. Within the house version seeks to limit school district ending carry over cash balances to 30% of their prior years expenditures and to allow county budget commissions to suspend voter approved property tax levies and the 20-mill floor in order to reduce district reserves to the 30% target. HB96 has several severe consequences for school districts in terms of financial stability, loss of local control and will likely result in increased levy requests to district taxpayers. We will continue to monitor these items within the budget process as both of these will hinder the administration for planning for the future.

"In planning for the future, the administration will need to make sure that the district is able to obtain a positive cash balance throughout the forecast. They will need to review current expenditures based on the current revenues to obtain this.

"As you read through the notes and review the forecast, remember that the forecast is based on the best information that is available to us at the time the forecast is prepared."

REVENUES

The May 2025 Ada Schools financial forecast presents the following revenue figures (rounded):