How does spending work at SHS?

We spend more than we take in so technically we are in a period where we are deficit spending. The school spends $70 million every year and takes in a little less than $70 million. We have no debt because of we have a cash reserve of $40 million. Some years we have to use that money and some years we don’t. The school district has done a very good job with budgeting and spending money which is why they have the $40 million saved in the bank.

What has the teacher’s union been negotiating for this past year?

We weren’t asking for anything new, we were just trying to keep the integrity of the contract. The school board was interested in trying out some cost-saving ideas and we weren’t interested in any of those which is why we kept negotiating back and forth.

How has Governor John Kasich affected schools in Ohio?

Governor Kasich has made it difficult for the schools in the standpoint of them passing legislation that would make it more expensive to operate schools. We at Sycamore don’t get a lot of money from the state so we’re not too worried about that, whereas other schools received a lot of money from the state and now they’re cutting that back and giving that money to charter schools/parochial schools instead of public. Where he has hurt us the most is with all these tests that he is requiring us to give. Instead of buying textbooks, now we have to buy computers to run and do these PARC tests and standardized tests; that costs money. At the beginning of the year, students had to take all these assessments. Somebody had to create those and be trained in them. The district had to pay teachers over the summer to create those assessments. So even though he isn’t directly impacting it, has indirectly impacting is with all this legislation that is mandating tests and new curriculum.