TALAWANDA SCHOOL DISTRICT

131 W. Chestnut Street, Oxford, Ohio  45056  ❘  www.talawanda.org

Welcome Back 2023 School Year!

Welcome Talawanda School District Families and Community Members:

Talawanda School District is an amazing and diverse school district located in a community that includes a prestigious university, Miami.  This community enjoys the best of both worlds with rural and suburban areas that encompass 144 square miles of beautiful landscapes.  We are among the  largest geographical  districts in Ohio with a student population just under 3000.

Talawanda’s wonderful staff is dedicated to our community and our students.  Talawanda School District provides a wide menu of activities, extracurricular options, and course opportunities not seen in many small districts.  Our Board of Education supports the endeavors and needs of our community, students, and staff.  Many of our staff also call the Talawanda School District home.  

The state provides approximately $2,500 of a guaranteed funding per student.  This amount is clearly not enough to educate all of our students with a rigorous curriculum and prepare our students for life beyond high school.  Our community provides the lion’s share of the money needed to educate our children through property taxes and school income tax in our district. Our last operational levy (school income tax 1.0%) passed in 2004 and went into effect in 2005.  Since that time, a bond levy was approved by our community and a new high school was built.  Three new elementary buildings were also built during the past 15 years (Kramer, Bogan, and Marshall). Kramer and Marshall were built with no additional tax dollars voted in.  These two elementary buildings were built using our permanent improvement money (own local funds) and OFCC money, so these modern schools were provided with no new tax dollars.  We have a very supportive and dedicated community that understands the need for modernized schools with the appropriate amenities, learning spaces, and technology to meet the needs for the education students require today.

Our past and current Board of Education members, leadership, and staff have made outstanding decisions to not only provide many educational opportunities available for our students, but to also manage our financial resources.  The Ohio State Funding Formulas and Operational Rules make it difficult for Ohio schools to operate without asking for community financial support.  The formula is designed to send local districts back to their communities to ask for funding over and over again.   In fact, most school districts are forced to ask their communities for operational levies every 5 to 7 years.  In 1997, in DeRolph v. The Ohio Supreme Court declared the State's school funding system unconstitutional, specifically citing four major flaws in the system, including insufficient state funding for school facilities.  The court system has declared this on 4 separate occasions, but the Ohio Legislative Body has failed to address this.

A new student funding formula has been approved by our state legislature.  This new funding system, as well as, the Governor’s recently signed biennial budget will increase the amount of funding Talawanda will see over the next two years.  Talawanda will see an estimated $725,000 over the next two years (in total).  While this is better news than what we had anticipated, the increased revenue does not cover the rising costs (as all of us know and see in our own grocery, electric, gas, maintenance, and medical costs to name a few).  

Talawanda School District is in deficit spending.  This means we are spending more money than our revenues (what we receive from the state and from our taxpayers).  We have made difficult decisions to reduce our expenditures.  We have shared our proposed three year plan to reduce expenditures.  This plan may be found on our website HERE 

Our Board of Education and team is dedicated to providing the best education possible and in tightening our belts. We have reduced department and building budgets by 20% annually over the last three years, sought and received additional grants, reduced 12.5 teaching positions, created some cost savings through attrition, implemented a strategic plan to guide our decisions, implemented Athletic and Marching Band fees (Pay to Participate), reduced elementary counselors, reduced some course offerings, reduced SROs at the elementary level, eliminated 9-12 bus transportation, extended the No Transportation mileage from 1 to 2 miles, reduced administrative staff and supports, and moved staff into vacant positions.  Initially the district had a small number of staff who were Reduced In Force (RIF’d), but due to vacancies we were able to bring those staff members back.  All of our staff including our Certified, Classified, and Administrators agreed to a 1% cost of living raise last school year (2022-23) and a 0% cost of living raise for this school year (2023-24).  Our state share is only 15.8%.  This share is very low, especially in comparison to surrounding districts.  Students who move to other districts or take the EdChoice Vouchers receive more money to attend those schools than Talawanda.  While this is not the time to induce panic, I believe it is important to let the community, students, staff, and parents know that we are in financial distress.  

Our Board of Education placed a levy on the November 2022 ballot which was defeated by approximately 66% of the voters.  Community forums were held.  We listened to the concerns at the forums and through other communications (emails, telephone calls, letters, small groups and 1:1 conversations).  

Our Board of Education has decided to wait on another levy to better understand the updated Butler County property valuations that will go into place at the end of October…so stay tuned.  We will communicate as soon as we know those impacts.  The State of Ohio has suggested some property increases may result in a 20-42% increase.  Again, Talawanda School District would not see all of the property increase, but we would see some increase.  With the somewhat favorable biennial Governor budget and the unknown Property Tax Valuation, we will wait to fully understand these changes before making additional changes to our 3 year plan.  

We will continue to advocate for a fair student funding formula and process as well as to address the over burden of property taxes on our community members to fund our schools.  It is an unfair and unequal system.

We have many partnerships with local agencies and community members.  Our health and wellness programs and activities are the envy of other school districts.  We have connections that provide mental health awareness and support to both our students and families. We also have benefitted from these partnerships to develop an educational program focused on developing the whole child.  We are blessed to have these opportunities as well as a community who understands and values education.  

Our Strategic Plan can be found at our website HERE. Our plan will help guide our focus and direction as we address student and staff needs.  We will use BRAVE to address Bridging and Building our Community, Educating with Respect and Equity in Inclusive Environments, Accounting for our taxpayer money with fiscal stewardship, promoting Vision and innovative opportunities, and implementing Exceptional and high quality instruction and staffing.

Our Diversity and Equity Plan can also be found at our website HERE.  This plan was developed by parents, staff, and partners.  We will continue to adjust the plan as we prepare and educate our students for life.

The new report card data should be shared with us very soon.  We will share the report card information at an upcoming Board of Education meeting when the data is finalized.  We have seen some positive growth in some areas and work to do in other areas.  We have been ranked in the top third in the state. Please remember there are many changes to the report card including the elimination of the letter grades and replacing those letters with a star rating system.  As in the past the state has kept to the trend of making changes to the report card every 3 to 4 years, so it’s always been a moving target.  Again, we will address these changes in an upcoming Board meeting.  Stay tuned.

If you are new to Talawanda, we welcome you.  We are an outstanding school district!  Reach out to your teachers or administrators if you have questions.

Additional information related to our district may be found on our website at www.talawanda.org.  Our Board meetings are videotaped if you can’t attend the meetings, you may watch the meetings from the comfort of your own home HERE.  In addition to our website and blog, you may find information and good news on twitter, other social media channels and school-E-new. Each building provides additional information regarding each school and can also be found on our website in each school’s blog and in our official Talawanda communications. As the Superintendent of Schools, I also provide quarterly video updates that hopefully provide you with some information within a short amount of time (2 minutes).  If you have questions or concerns, please contact your child’s  teacher, staff, principal, or administrator.  We will do our best to answer your question or concern within 2-3 business days if not earlier.

Again…Talawanda School District is an outstanding educational institution.  I am blessed to work in this school district with our talented staff and under the direction of our consummate Board of Education.  I am also blessed to work with the many families and students who value education and want the best for the Talawanda students and community.  

In Education,

Dr. Edward Theroux

Talawanda School District Superintendent