Findlay Schools confirms $6M in cuts

FINDLAY — Changes are on the horizon for Findlay City Schools' 2025-26 academic year. While the district found itself successful in passing its 1% earned income tax levy in May, previous failed attempts have left the district at a $6 million budget shortfall. "Unfortunately, Findlay City Schools was unsuccessful on the ballot in November of 2024, which meant that to live within our means, we had to move forward with $6 million in operational cuts for the 2025-26 school year," Superintendent Andy Hatton said. The district's successful 1% earned income tax will not begin accruing until January 2026, with its first collection and distribution to the school district coming in April 2026. "I do believe in our teachers, I believe in our administrators, our counselors, our bus drivers, our transportation — everyone on our team is going to step up and do a little bit more with a little bit less this year," Hatton said. Budget cuts for 2025-26 include: • Administrators (6 positions): $799,000• Teachers (43 positions and positions reduced through attrition): $3,578,300• Support Staff (23 positions): $820,800; this reduction includes eliminating high school busing and increasing walking distance to two miles• Supplemental Positions (92 positions): $307,200• Middle School and High School Pay-to-Participate: $340,000• Programming and Instructional Resources: $170,300• Extended Work Days: $75,000Total: $6,090,600 Staff reductions The district is saving the largest amount by eliminating and reducing thorough attrition 43 teaching positions, 23 support staff, 92 supplemental positions and six administrators. Hatton said employees assisting in The Teaching and Learning Department have been eliminated, but one teacher on special assignment, helping Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Katie Abbott oversee curriculum for more than 5,200 students. "Numerous reductions took place in our Teaching and Learning Department," Hatton said. "We had teachers on special assignment that were helping with those curricular reviews and helping with those curricular implementations. About five of those positions are now eliminated." Busing and transportation The district's transportation will be facing significant changes ahead of the upcoming year. Busing will only be provided to students in pre-K through middle school who live within a two mile radius, the maximum distance allowed by the state and a $821,00 cost saving measure. According to Hatton, the district is currently assessing neighborhoods and sidewalks to determine best available routes and identify any unsafe areas where families may qualify for an exception for busing. Students with Individualized Education Programs who require transportation will continue to receive busing. "I do want to assure our community that right now, we are out assessing safe walk zones for our students," Hatton said. "If we determine, based on a list of criteria, that the walk zone is not safe, we will make adjustments there or we will provide the transportation to those specific neighborhoods or streets for students." Once the district receives clarification on its budget, transportation will be among one of the first things to be reevaluated, Hatton said. "Once we have some certainty with our budget, we will begin to analyze and plan for what we can start to rebuild with our staff, our teachers, our students and our community," Hatton said. "What things can we start to bring back? Transportation is at the top of that list. If there's any way, even during the school year, to enhance our transportation services, once we have clarity and some stability in our budget, that is a top priority for the Board of Education." Other cuts Character-building and leadership programs such as Leader in Me, based on Franklin Covey principles, have not been renewed for the upcoming year. "We still believe that those are great tools, philosophical beliefs, skills and dispositions that we want our students to have as they lead and as they leave our doors," Abbott said. "However, that will not be renewed." Due to fewer staff, classes are expected to grow in size at the elementary and middle schools, as well as at the high school. "Instead of opening the year with some of our elementary classes at 20 to 22, we will be opening the year with, say, 23 to 25 students," Hatton said. Dedicated literacy rotations at the elementary level will now be incorporated into core instruction, with gifted students in grades 3-5 transitioning from a pullout enrichment model to a cluster group within a regular classroom. "We will be incorporating those skills and what the students need to be able to do in regards to typing, keyboarding and digital literacy into the actual core time for our students in the classroom," Abbott said. Math classes at the middle school will be "unblocked," with instruction time cut in half for the course. "Previously, students had two periods worth of time, and that will be cut in half for this upcoming school year," Abbott said. "We are still looking at all of Ohio's learning standards and mastering each of those standards, but the time will look a little bit different for our students." Special rotations at the middle school, otherwise known as Encore, will also be seeing reductions. Popular rotations like Medical Detectives will not be offered this year. Clubs like robotics will be consolidated into one team between Donnell and Glenwood. Middle school extracurricular activities, such as athletics and clubs, will also be combined, with Donnell and Glenwood represented as one team. "We are still going to have opportunities in athletics that are middle school, but we did combine all of our sports teams," Hatton said. "Which is sad, because that's limiting opportunities for our middle schoolers." While all clubs and athletics will remain unaffected at the high school, some assistant coaching and assistant directing positions have been cut. "We had to reduce areas with some assistant coaches, assistant directors, those kinds of things," Hatton said. "To the best of our ability, we don't want to see a drop in the quality of our performances, but there may be an impact." High school courses are also facing reductions. According to Abbott, the team at Findlay High School used student requests, along with attrition of staff members to determine course offerings for the school year. Previous electives, Blue & Gold, Yearbook and Creative Writing will now be offered as clubs or extracurricular opportunities rather than courses. "We are in a financial state where we have got to have courses that are viable, and viability really kicks in when you've got somewhere between 15 to 20 students that want to take even a single course," Hatton said. "We want to be a destination school district where kids have every opportunity to take courses that they want. We've just got to get creative with that." While the district issues $6 million in budget cuts, Hatton said FCS remains committed to rebuilding the district's finances. "We have to continue to work with our community through telling our story, sharing our successes, and being transparent about the pain points that we're struggling with," Hatton said. "I want to help facilitate Findlay City schools, as the superintendent, to be a premier school district in the area along with our amazing staff and along with our students."