'There will be no rock unturned,' Elyria Schools to cut $8 million if levy fails

ELYRIA TWP. — During a Board of Education meeting Wednesday, Elyria Schools officials said that if the district's operating levy fails in November, it would need to cut $8 million over two years. The board voted this summer to place Issue 4, a new 10-year, 8.9-mill current expense levy, on the ballot. The decision came after the district made more than $9 million in budget cuts after the failure of two smaller levies in 2025. Elyria Schools Treasurer Colleen Aholt has said that the reduction plan was crucial in staving off financial trouble for the district, but that if voters again reject a levy, the district would be forced to pursue further cuts. Rising costs and falling revenue — driven largely by reductions in state funding — have forced the district into deficit spending and Aholt said without new operating money Elyria would have to cut about $8 million in spending over the 2027-28 and 2028-29 school years. Superintendent Ann Schloss and several board members said they had received questions from a number of concerned parents and community members about what those new cuts would look like, or about what programs could return if the levy passes. The short answer, Schloss said on Wednesday, is that nothing is off the table. "I think what I said today and what I will continue to say is, there will be no rock unturned if this (levy failure) happens," Schloss said. "We will have to look at, No. 1, how much we have to cut and what fits that dollar amount, but even moreso what (cuts) we can keep the furthest away from kids. We always say how can we make these cuts and make sure that it … doesn't have a direct effect on kids as much as possible? Now, anything we cut will have an effect." Schloss said she could not provide a detailed map of what would be cut, but there would certainly be staff reductions and the district would have to look hard at extracurriculars like bands, robotics, sports and clubs. "You know, a lot of people have been asking are you doing away with athletics? We don't know, we'd have to look at what that entails," she said. "We have to look at the state requirements around what we have to have compared to what we have that some would deem 'extras.'" In the wake of the reduction plan the district had also explored other ways to save money, such as implementing a "pay to participate" structure for sports and other extracurriculars. While this practice is commonplace in most of Lorain County, the idea generated heavy opposition from the community and failed to gain any support from the board or administration. Schloss said at the time that the revenue — between $125,000 and $175,000 a year if every student currently playing sports in the district and paid the full amount — would not be high enough to justify the detrimental impact to students and their school experience. If the levy fails again though, she said that calculus could change. "We would have to really look at, does pay to participate come back to the table as a way to fund that?" Schloss said. "Many different things. The other thing you would have to look at if we were to cut some of those things, would students stay here? Because that is a source of revenue. So you have to kind of look at the cause and effect of everything." One place where the district cut to the state requirement was in busing services. Previously the district had bused all students further than 1.25 miles to school, but as a part of its reduction plan it expanded its radius to the state-required 2 miles. Schloss said that in the same way she could not promise what would be cut if the levy failed, she could not guarantee that the busing radius would go back to the old range if the levy is passed, but she did say it would be a consideration. "We are not going to stand up here and say this would definitely get cut, and oh by the way if the levy passes this will definitely come back," she said. "... (Parents) want to know, if I vote for the levy will my child be bused again? That's not a definite no, it's not a definite yes. I think we have to look at what we can afford to do and continue to prioritize what it looks like." The district has accepted hardship letters from parents within the new busing radius who argue that their child should still be able to ride the bus. Schloss said that the district is in the middle of finalizing those letters, but that it was already having to practice prioritization by focusing first on children who are very young or have illnesses or other issues. If passed, Issue 4 would generate about $11.6 million and would cost homeowners $312 for every $100,000 of the auditor's appraised value of their home, or about $26 per month. Elyria Schools have not received a new operating expenses levy in more than 15 years. "We know that it is a huge ask for our community, but unfortunately, until there are some changes with the way funding happens right now, we can't operate and maintain all of the programs that we have without additional local support," said Elaine Seguin, president of the Elyria Board of Education. Aholt and Schloss said that they would continue to provide additional information relevant to the levy in subsequent meetings ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3, and Aholt said that she would give a presentation on the realities of state funding that led to the current budget deficit at the board's next meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 6. Contact Owen MacMillan at 440-329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.