In the Upper Arlington Schools, we are committed to preparing the young people of this community for success, both while they’re here and in their next steps in life. An important part of that is ensuring that we have the people — teachers, bus drivers, custodians, nurses, support staff and more — to support our students in every aspect of their school experience.
This year, we are welcoming more than 50 new members of the Upper Arlington Schools team — including classroom teachers, intervention specialists, building principals and more. While they are primarily filling open and existing positions, we do have a few who are joining us due to continuing enrollment growth, particularly at the kindergarten level. This is truly exciting, because those students are coming to us at the very beginning of their Upper Arlington Schools experience.
With this trend likely to continue over the next several years, the district will continue to closely monitor our enrollment growth to efficiently plan for additional students and the additional “people” they need to support them on their academic journey.
Ohio Biennium Budget
This summer, the Ohio legislature and Gov. Mike DeWine approved the biennium budget, covering the next two fiscal years. Thanks to revisions to the Fair School Funding Plan contained in the budget, I am pleased to share that Upper Arlington Schools is projected to see an increase of approximately $2 million in state funding for the 2023-24 fiscal year and beyond. Even though the Fair School Funding Plan represents a very small portion of our overall district budget, this still represents an increase by approximately 58 percent in our state foundation and additional state aid.
Any amount of additional state funding is a positive for our school district and our community, and I am appreciative that the legislative process ultimately resulted in an increase in state funding for not only Upper Arlington but public school districts overall.
Finance Advisory Committee
Finally, I wanted to share an update on the work of the Treasurer’s Finance Advisory Committee. You may recall that this committee was re-established as a result of the Listen Learn Lead community engagement process led by the Board of Education. This committee of volunteer residents builds on our district’s long history of utilizing the expertise in our community.
The Finance Advisory Committee has met twice so far to gain an understanding of school finance and will be reviewing information in future meetings to provide feedback on the financial operations of the district. I am excited to continue this work as part of our long-standing commitment to being a good steward of our community’s investment in our schools.
For more information about our district’s finances, please visit www.uaschools.org/treasurer.aspx. If you have any additional questions about our district’s finances, you can contact me at [email protected].