DILLONVALE — The Buckeye Local School District is paying close attention to its finances in the wake of possible laws pertaining to property taxes and other changes which could impact schools in the future.

The board held its regular session early on Monday where members passed a resolution for revised appropriation measures for Fiscal Year 2026 and approved the new four-year forecast for submission to the state, but district Treasurer Merri Matthews said leaders need to keep an eye on funding over the next five years.

“We’re in the black for all four years, but (starting the fifth year) we’ll be in deficit spending,” Matthews said. “There are things we are planning in the future that we need to keep in mind.”

She added that 57 percent of funding resources are derived from property taxes with 38 percent coming from the state and the remaining 5 percent from local support.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with the property taxes. If there’s an elimination of property taxes, we’d be impacted,” she added. “There are a lot of unknowns, so I think we have to be fiscally responsible.”

She cited wage and benefit increases and rising costs of materials and supplies because of tariffs, among other issues.

“There are things that are beyond our control,” she commented.

Meanwhile, she recommended the board schedule a finance workshop and leaders agreed to meet on Oct. 20 at 5 p.m. in the board office.

In related matters, board member Ashley West provided another legislative update on happenings in the Statehouse, including recommendations from Gov. Mike DeWine’s Property Tax Reform Workgroup that are of critical interest to education advocates.

Among them were refining the process and definition of county budget commissions that would allow them to reduce levies deemed unnecessary (beyond anticipated needs) or “excessive” (taxes materially exceeding service requirements). Reductions could occur five years after a levy is first approved, or two years after renewal, with a public hearing; limiting carryover balances for all taxing districts to 100 percent; enacting legislation to eliminate the future use of substitute levies and renaming all current substitute and emergency levies to fixed-sum levies; supporting House Bill 186, which reduces property taxes by offering a tax credit to property owners in a school district on the 20-mill floor or a joint vocational school district on the 2-mill floor if the district’s tax revenue increase exceeds the rate of inflation, and extending the credit to inside millage; restricting emergency levies to entities under fiscal caution, watch or emergency as defined by the state auditor and imposing a five-year limit; and enacting H.B.154, which allows state school districts to disapprove of a community reinvestment area program that will impact the school district.

West added that the Ohio Educational Policy Institute released a property tax policy analysis illustrating how Ohio’s reliance on local control, along with economic factors and state tax policy changes, has led to a significant shift in the state-local funding partnership toward residential taxpayers. Takeaways included rising home values, slow economic growth and 20 years of state tax policy changes have intensified local school funding challenges; homeowners and farmers now carrying 67.5 percent of school property taxes –which is up from 46.1 percent in 1975–while the business share has dropped by nearly half; and cuts and eliminations of state taxes having reduced state support, forcing schools and local governments to increase property taxes, which has left Ohio with the eighth-highest property tax rate nationally. In contrast, the state’s overall tax burden ranks 46th.

She said that the General Assembly has begun joint House and Senate meetings on Congressional redistricting and existing property tax reform bills in the House Ways and Means Committee, while lawmakers have yet to act upon recommendations from DeWine’s reform workgroup. West further updated activity on H.B. 96, or the state biennium bill, which made changes to the member makeup of the State Teachers Retirement System board and led to lawsuits by the Ohio Education Association, Ohio Federation of Teachers and the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors. A Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the changes from taking effect until a preliminary injunction hearing is held.

Additionally, board member Brooke Stingle said she attended a community meeting on property taxes with state Rep. Ron Ferguson, R-Wintersville, and Jefferson County Auditor E.J. Conn. Officials said no plan was in place in response to property tax elimination, but Conn urged residents to do research and think of its effects, including to schools.

Among other business:

• District Maintenance Supervisor Tony Panepucci said projects were being completed, including preparation of the football field for an upcoming game, concrete being poured for the new greenhouse at Buckeye Local High School, winterization of the sewer plant and work on the track. He was also seeking quotes and applying for a Board of Workers’ Compensation safety grant;

Officials received a nutrition report and learned breakfast was up 14 percent over the budget, while lunch increased by 3.12 percent and a la carte items were up 12.4 percent;

• Steve Bezak III, the school district’s representative on the Jefferson County Joint Vocational School Board, said his term was going to expire and he hoped to continue participating but needed the BLBOE’s approval. The matter was being added to the next school board agenda for official action;

• Superintendent Coy Sudvary said 14 new NEOLA policies were being added and needed approval, including one for metal detectors that would be fitting should the district procure the safety equipment for schools;

• Board Vice President Melissa Supanik, who led the session, recommended adding a $500 board scholarship for the 2025-26 school year, which the panel approved;

• Leaders approved Steve Roberts as a long-term substitute teacher for the first semester of the 2025-26 school year and gave pupil activity contracts to Hank Kendjorsky and Jackson Otto as BLHS assistant wrestling coaches, Trevor Zanes as volunteer boys’ basketball coach at BLHS, Eric Wilson as seventh-grade girls’ basketball coach at BLJHS and Ryder Kindberg-Colabelli as eighth-grade girls’ basketball coach at BLJHS;

• The board lauded Buckeye South Elementary preschool staff members Abagale Schrickel and Kim Svoboda for their quick response to a student in need of medical assistance;

• Officials recognized Robert Call and Harmony Woodland as the homecoming king and queen;

• The next regular meeting was set for 5:30 p.m. Nov. 24 at the administrative offices in Dillonvale.