Grandview Heights Schools' Treasurer/CFO Beth Collier explains how state funding reductions are impacting the school district's budget in the following article. For more information about treasury operations and to view the five-year forecast, please visit:

https://www.ghcsd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=221224&type=d&pREC_ID=533438

Grandview Heights Schools continues to excel as a school district and remains an asset to our community. As part of our communications efforts and making sure our residents are informed about their investment in our schools, the five-year forecast offers our taxpayers a transparent look at our finances.

The biggest concern remains state funding reductions.  Grandview Heights Schools was one of only two school districts in Franklin County to see a decrease in state funding for the 2018-2019 biennial state budget. While it’s been a challenge to our school district to adjust to the significant loss in state funding (the phase-out of tangible personal property tax funding of almost $1.5 million annually for our district), we prepared for the reduction and planned accordingly. However, due to these funding reductions, our ending cash balance is projected to trend downward beginning in fiscal year 2018.

We are realizing a modest increase in our tax revenue from the recent reappraisal of homes; but it’s important to note that due to House Bill 920, increases in property values have very little overall effect on tax revenue for the district. In other words, although property values are increasing in our community, by law, school districts generally do not receive additional revenue.

Balancing revenues and expenditures is a challenge, and that’s why we’ve enacted cost saving measures to ensure we maintain a responsible budget. Our focus on operational efficiencies have saved our school district over $100,000 annually in our daily operations.

Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff residents can take great pride in our schools.   We offer an excellent education to our students while providing a great value to our taxpayers. The community’s support and trust in our schools is important to us and that is why we continue to openly communicate important financial information.