The meeting came a couple of weeks after a series of community meetings addressing the fiscal reality Hamilton City Schools faces after federal and state cuts in school funding.
“We were unfortunately on the losing side of that, and there are various factors,” said Blevins. “It’s not all the formula itself. Yes, the increases that were not built in to continue to fund the formula hurt us, but our enrollment is dropping dramatically in Hamilton.”
Ohio is eighth in the country for property tax burden while ranking 42nd for per-person state taxes. That means families pay more while the state pays less.
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Today, Hamilton is a district with approximately 8,200 students, whereas a decade ago, it had around 10,000 students. School choice has played a part in the enrollment drop, as there aren’t fewer school-aged children, said Assistant Superintendent Mike Wright. Data shows, he said, there are around 300 more school-aged kids in the city than there were five years ago.
“It’s more choices,” he said, such as charter, private schools and dropout recovery schools, as well as homeschooling.
Butler Tech has impacted school enrollment. Students are dually associated with Butler Tech and their home high school, the number of students has increased more than 2.5 times since Butler Tech added the lottery enrollment process with its traditional application process. More than 425 students who otherwise would be at Hamilton High School are at Butler Tech, according to the school district.
“All of those programs are great for our kids, so it’s hard to argue that there’s not value, but all those things have taken kids out of our district,” Blevins said.
State Superintendent Paul Craft said one of his primary focuses is “making sure that Ohio’s 1.6 million kids and Hamilton’s 8,000 kids interact every day with educators who are well-qualified and show proper standards, moral character.”
That is the goal for Blevins and her staff as they aim to keep standards high despite declining funding. She said the district is addressing these challenges, but is focused on consolidation rather than the elimination of programs.
Hamilton Schools is the 18th largest school district in Ohio, and Craft said districts like Hamilton and bigger “got hit so hard” with defunding actions at the state level.
About 70% of Hamilton’s funding is from the state budget, and Wright said, “Any little change at the state level, it’s huge for us”
Hamilton Mayor Pat Moeller sat in the meeting and said the city and school administration work in concert, because the city’s and school’s successes and failures are tied together.
“We do have the big-city problems and small-city charm,” he said. “The city knows how important the schools are. The city administration knows we will rise together, or go back a step or two together, and we don’t want to do that.”
The mayor said there are regular conversations between the city and school district, especially understanding how each works fiscally, which “has been beneficial for both.”
Blevins said 73% of the district’s students qualify as economically disadvantaged. With the help of grant funding, the district provides free breakfast and lunch to all students, which reduces social stigmas and embarrassment as students get older.
Craft said 73% “is not an easy hurdle,” adding the state average is about 48%.
“We know our community has the haves and have-nots,” she said. “I say all the time, as I’ve learned more and more about Hamilton, we are the classic West Side story, a little bit.”
Hamilton Schools has not passed an operating levy in more than 30 years, and officials do not plan to seek one at this time. Blevins said the district has a clear view of its budget for this fiscal year and the next, even with projected deficit spending ($4.7 million this fiscal year and $9 million in fiscal year 2027). However, if state funding trends continue, the district could be more than $14.1 million in the red by fiscal year 2028, according to the school’s financial outlook.
Hamilton is taking measures to be frugal, Blevins said, adding that they must “stay within our means; we can’t cash checks we can’t afford.“
However, the district must remain competitive in hiring. The average teacher salary is $78,000, which means the staff is relatively young. The largest cohort of teachers is in their 14th year. The district also has about 30 student teachers from Miami University this year.
“Part of that is so that there’s an opportunity for us to get to see them, to find out who are the best, who are the brightest, who can we recruit,” Wright said.
One of the biggest challenges for Hamilton is the transience.
Wright said approximately 30% of students finish the school year at a different address than where they started.
Much like the city reinventing itself over the past dozen-plus years, the district must find a new look as it operates under a new financial reality.
“There’s major energy in this town,” Blevins said. “We have a little bit of everything, which causes our district to be a jack of all trades.”
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