Bellbrook schools eye $900K more in cuts

Bellbrook-Sugarcreek leaders reduced budget $800K already this year.

With a deficit looming in the forecast, Bellbrook-Sugarcreek school leaders are finalizing a new round of budget cuts.

Bellbrook-Sugarcreek school leaders are considering a second round of budget cuts with a deficit looming in the forecast.

Superintendent Doug Cozad discussed “Phase II Reductions” in district finances at Thursday night’s school board meeting.

Cozad gave board members a targeted range of at least $700,000 to $900,000 in reducing the budget further for next school year.

Details of how those cuts will be made are not finalized. Cozad said the district is still working on the second phase of its reduction plan.

In an email message Friday, Cozad said the operating budget is “the single most important issue” facing the district.

“With an already lean budget, introducing more reductions after Phase II will strike at the core of

our schools and will impact the quality of education we offer,” Cozad said. “Due to that, the board will be contemplating when it will be going back on the ballot for another levy.”

District officials started trimming the budget in June, a month after voters rejected an operating levy.

Budget reductions of an estimated $813,000 already went into effect for the cur- rent school year, plans that included layoffs and cuts in busing service, attrition in teaching positions and reductions to aid and cus- todial staffing.

School leaders chose not to return to the ballot this year. A large majority of voters rejected a 7.5-mill proposal in the May election.

A community survey in July indicated residents feel their taxes are too high and would not be in favor of another levy without budget cuts.

The district’s 5-year budget forecast earlier this year projected revenue would fall short of covering expenses for the 2020-21 school year.