The Board of Education and district leadership team continue to discuss school finances at Board meetings after the renewal was rejected by voters. The Board voted to put a 1% earned income tax levy on the November 2024 and May 2025 ballots. The additional funds generated by this levy would be used to maintain current educational programs, return programming in 2026-27 in some form, continue the implementation of the district’s strategic plan, provide permanent improvement funds and keep up with rising costs related to the district’s day-to-day expenses.

We would say no:

Types of earned income:

Wages, salary or tips where federal income taxes are withheld on Form W-2, box 1

• Income from a job where your employer didn’t withhold tax (such as gig economy work) including

• ### Driving a car for booked rides or deliveries
• ### Running errands or doing tasks
• ### Selling goods online
• ### Providing creative or professional services
• ### Providing other temporary, on-demand or freelance work

• Money made from self-employment, including if you:
• Own or operate a business or farm
• Are a minister or member of a religious order
• Are a statutory employee and have income
• Benefits from a union strike
• Certain disability benefits you got before you were the minimum retirement age
• Nontaxable Combat Pay (Form W-2, box 12 with code Q)
• If you claim nontaxable combat pay as earned income, it may increase or decrease the amount of your EITC. For more information, see Publication 3, Armed Forces' Tax Guide.

Earned income does not include:

• Pay you got for work when you were an inmate in a penal institution
• Interest and dividends
• Pensions or annuities
• Social Security
• Unemployment benefits
• Alimony
• Child support

https://www.irs.gov/credits-​deductions/individuals/earned-​income-tax-credit/earned-​income-and-earned-income-tax-​credit-eitc-tables

The Board of Education has expressed its support for reducing the credit requirements for graduation to 21.5 credits. (State minimum is 20.) Now that the levy has passed, the district will be able to plan for returning current course offerings while considering additional options for the 2026-27 school year.

Additional funds are necessary to maintain current educational programs, continue the implementation of the district’s strategic plan, improving aging facilities, and keep up with rising costs related to the district’s day-to-day expenses.

Even though school districts in Ohio receive a combination of federal, state, and local funds, about half of Clinton-Massie Local Schools’ funding comes from the state and federal government. On average, schools in Ohio get $6,860.50 per student from the state and $2,153.59 per student from the federal government. Clinton-Massie Local Schools receives   $6,684.04 per student from the state and $768.26 from the federal government.

Yes and no. Because of state law, if property values go up, voted levy rates go down, so the amount of money the district collects stays the same.  Voted levy rates cannot go below 20 mills, which is where ours have been for at least a decade, so yes, we do see an increase in revenue.  This amount is already included in our financial plans.

Want to learn more about the Clinton County Auditor’s 2023 property tax revaluation or the Warren County Auditor's 2024 property tax revaluation? See their websites ar http://clintoncountyaditor.org and http://wcauditor.org

Earned income will begin being taxed January 1, 2026 for district residents.

The district leadership team and building administrators are currently looking for ways to continue to be good stewards of the tax dollars we receive. Unfortunately programming that was already cut for the 2025-26 school year will remain in place as we will not be receiving any 1% earned income tax revenue until April 2025 (~$200k).

Levy campaigns are managed by a political action committee, and private donations from individuals and businesses fund the campaign. District funds are not used to advocate for or against a levy or bond issue.

Ohio’s Public Employees’ Collective Bargaining Act requires that the district collectively bargain wages with its represented staff, which constitutes a significant majority of the district’s workforce.In May, the Board approved a new one-year contract with the Clinton-Massie Education Association (CMEA). The 2024-25 contract stipulates a 1% increase to the base salary for all district employees for the next year.

Yes. District employees can provide neutral, accurate, and factual information about a levy or bond issue at any time. They also can engage in campaign activity on their own time and on their own dime.

District employees cannot use district resources to advocate for or against a levy or bond issue, and they cannot advocate for or against a levy or bond issue while being compensated by the district.

Providing safe learning environments is a priority for our district. The district uses permanent improvement fund to pay for building repairs, renovations and other long-term improvements. Our school facilities include 384,774 square feet of space in 2 buildings, with the middle school built in 1963 and modified in 2008, high school 2004 and elementary 2005.

When we don’t include the permanent improvement fund and only look at the district’s operating costs, about 78.3% of the budget goes to paying salaries and benefits for teachers and support staff. The rest of the money goes toward other expenses like buying classroom supplies, fueling buses, and paying for utilities.

In the chart below, “Purchased Services” includes contracted expenses, such as utilities, trash collection, copier machines, electronic systems for student data, and communication with families. “Supplies and Materials” includes curriculum resources, bus fuel, paper, printer supplies, and items like paper towels and toilet paper. Finally, “Other Expenses” cover bank and auditor fees.

There was a 0.5% earned income tax in place through December 31, 2024. The newly passed levy is for a 1.0% earned income tax beginning January 1, 2026 so it would be roughly double the 2024 amount.

Prior to May 6, 2025, a five-year 0.5% earned income tax was passed May 7, 2019 and prior to that November 8, 1988 (for operating purposes; there were construction bonds in 2001 approved)

Property taxes have been the main source of funding for Ohio’s schools since the 1800s. Approximately two-thirds of all property taxes levied in Ohio go to fund schools. The remainder of property tax money is divided among local governments.  In Clinton County, we receive about 56% of your taxes and in Warren County we receive about 58% of your taxes.

The district’s operating fund (also known as the general fund) supports the daily expenses of our schools – things like paying teachers and support staff, buying classroom supplies, fueling buses, and paying for utilities. The most recent levy for additional operating funds was approved in 2019.

Yes. Besides the money from past permanent improvement levies, the district can also use its general fund for daily operating costs, as well as facility maintenance projects.

School districts need money to maintain operations, and voted levies are the main source of funding for most districts in Ohio. However, state law freezes the amount of money school districts receive from those levies – providing the same dollar amount year after year. As home values increase, the county auditor lowers the tax rate, which is called the “effective” millage. This makes it hard for school districts to keep up with rising costs, and it’s why they need to ask voters for more money every few years.

The effective millage has decreased for three of Clinton-Massie’s’ tax levies. The levies prior to 1976 were passed for 17.3 mills.  The 1979 levy passed for 3 mills and the 1988 levy passed for another 3 mills. The current residential effective rate on these levies is 20 mills, and the district collected about $6.7 million from these levies last year. If the district were to pass a 3-mill property tax levy today, it would raise $1.29 million per year.

Clinton-Massie Local Schools’ local tax effort on all levies (including income tax) for residential properties falls second-to-last among neighboring school districts, ranking 8th out of 9 districts per the ODEW District Profile Report for FY2023.  The ODEW Fair School Funding Formula assumes all districts have a local tax effort index of at least 1.000.  

Yes. Grant funding was provided to school districts in fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023 to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. You can view a summary of the funding that Clinton-Massie Local Schools received and how it’s been used. All funds were spent by the completion of the 2022-2023 school year.

When the March 2024 levy failed, the Board of Education and district leaders decided not to replace 12 employees as well as increasing fees which will save about $1.3 million from the district’s operating fund.In May, the board approved a new one-year contract with the Clinton-Massie Education Association (CMEA). This contract stipulates a 1% increase to the base salary for all district employees for the next year.Besides these cuts, the district uses several ongoing measures to save money. Here are a few examples:* Procuring cost-saving contracts: Working with the Southwest Ohio Educational Purchasing Council, a group with 250 other school districts, to get better deals on energy, buses, equipment, and supplies

• Comparing prices: Always checking prices from different vendors to get the best deals without lowering quality
• Seeking grants: Looking for grant opportunities as often as possible to add to our financial resources
• Selling unused assets: Using GovDeals to sell unused items, which has earned the district $9,155 just since this summer
• Managing payroll costs: Keeping base salary increases at an average of 2.14% for teachers, administrators, and all other staff over the last 10 years* Doubling the deductibles for those employees who have our insurance

1,786 students in grades PreK-12 enrolled in Clinton-Massie Local Schools during the 2023-24 school year, a 3% decrease from the previous year. Our average enrollment over the past 10 years is about 1,848 students.  We know that enrollment will continue to decrease as we discontinued our K-5 open enrollment and the 6-12 open enrolled students will matriculate out.

We decided to end open enrollment in the elementary school (and moving forward) because personnel is our largest cost.  We had several teachers retiring (in the elementary specifically), so by not filling those positions, we could still be within our class-size targets with resident students, but no longer with our open enrolled students included. 

Prior to the Fair School Funding Plan, we were receiving additional money for those students who chose to open enroll here (and losing money for those students choosing to leave).  Now, our enrollment, whether residential or open enrolled, is part of the base calculations.  We do not get enough money from those base calculations, so that's why we're on the guarantee that we explained.  So it's also no longer a financial incentive to offer open enrollment.

We chose to pursue an earned income tax for two reasons - the first is that by being an earned income tax, we are only taxing those wages reported on a W-2, Schedule C or Schedule F and nothing else. By choosing an earned income tax instead of a property tax, those on fixed incomes will not be affected.  The second reason is because a property tax continues to collect the original amount it was passed for.  So for instance, if we passed a property tax that would raise $3.2 million, we could only collect $3.2 million for the life of the levy.  By asking for an income tax, as income increases, so does our revenue.  (Same with the flip side though - if income decreases, so does our revenue.)

The 11 positions reduced after the 2023-24 school year were retirements of an intervention specialist, 3 elementary teachers, and a school nurse; resignations by 3 middle school teachers; a leave of absence; and non-renewing 2 rehired-retired teachers (intervention specialist & high school).

We are currently anticipate to receive $193,081 in April 2026. For the 2026-2027 school year, we are predicting around $2.3 million. For the next 3 school years we forecasting $3.2 - $3.7 million.