Elyria School Board to discuss budget cuts Feb. 4, moves moves meeting to EHS

The Elyria Board of Education will hold its Feb. 4 meeting at the Elyria High School Performing Arts Center, as it is set to discuss roughly $9 million in proposed budget cuts for the district. In December, district officials announced that after the failure of two emergency levies in 2025, they would present a budget reduction plan that Treasurer Colleen Aholt said would be needed to keep the district solvent. That plan will be shared with the public at the Feb. 4 meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. Superintendent Ann Schloss said the meeting had been moved to the Performing Arts Center to allow as many residents as possible to attend the meeting. "In the past, when we have had a meeting like that, we have pretty much filled the chairs. The board room can only accommodate so many people," Schloss said. "This way, everyone will be able to see it. We encourage the community and staff to come and listen so that everyone knows what's being recommended." She said that the hope was for the Board of Education to vote on the recommendations that night, due to upcoming contract agreements and the district's pending financial forecast. At a meeting on Dec. 10, Aholt and Schloss said that they felt it was important that the budget reduction process was transparent and residents had a chance to weigh in on the decisions. Elyria voters shot down two identical 10-year, 4.9-mill emergency operating levies in May and November 2025, and members of the board said they felt the public had spoken, effectively asking the district to reduce funding. "I think that it is excellent that you are involving the community," board President Elaine Seguin said on Dec. 10. "They have spoken via not passing the levies that they felt the need for this, so I think being transparent is a great idea." Those levies were the first time that Elyria Schools asked voters for new operating money in over 15 years. At a prior meeting in November following the second failed levy, Schloss and Elyria Education Association President Linda Aguinaga, among other officials, said that the budget crisis Elyria was facing mirrored issues across the state caused by an outdated state finding system. Schloss said on Nov. 19 that districts across the state are increasingly reliant on local funding as the state Legislature continues to fund schools at levels that have not been adjusted since 2022, despite significant inflation and cost increases since that time. "Elyria's situation is not the result of irresponsible spending or mismanagement," Aguinaga said at that meeting. "It is the result of a funding system that places districts like ours in repeated cycles of crisis. Cycles that force communities back to the ballot, force districts to contemplate devastating reductions and force employees to brace for the possibility of losing their livelihood. These cycles are unsustainable, demoralizing and harmful to students." If no funding cuts are made, Elyria would be at risk of spending its entire cash balance and being placed under state oversight by 2028. Contact Owen MacMillan at omacmillan@chroniclet.com.