Miamisburg City Schools

A letter from Superintendent Greg Whitehead 

Summer 2011 

The Miamisburg Board of  Education approved new two-year contracts with MCTA teachers and Teamsters Local 957.

At its regularly scheduled board meeting Thursday night, May 19, 2011, the Miamisburg Board of Education approved new negotiated contracts with their teachers (Miamisburg Classroom Teachers Association) and with their classified
support staff (Teamsters Local 957).

Following State budget cuts to the district of nearly $2.89 million, the Board,  administration, teaching  and classified staff (representing all employees)  worked together to meet the financial challenge of the drastic state cuts while striving to maintain current work force levels. The approved contracts will allow the district to balance their annual budgets, avoid critical layoffs and program reductions for the next two years without any increase in taxes.

The financial concessions approved by the unions and the Board include a two-year freeze on base salary, a two-year freeze on step and/or longevity pay, a two-year freeze on district insurance contributions, a two-year freeze on
supplemental salaries,  no tuition reimbursement, no year-end perfect attendance bonus and no class size bonus. These concessions will allow the district to balance their budget for the next two, maybe three years if economic conditions improve and no other cuts in revenue sources occur.  In addition, all district administrators and non-bargaining unit members have accepted these same concessions as well.

Both contracts were approved by a wide majority of its members and a unanimous vote of the Board of  Education. I applaud the professionalism and dedication of each and every employee in the district. These concessions save jobs and the ability to offer a quality education to all students.

I cannot recall such a period of fiscal tension in our state and district.  Our district has seen a loss of revenue from all sides,  federal, state and local. But with great pride I can say our employees’ commitment to our supportive
community is to provide the very best in educational opportunities. As always, we will work diligently to operate our district as efficiently as possible.

I am blessed to work in this district where all employees understand the
importance each of them play in the education of our students. All through negotiations our goal was to maintain our quality workforce. We have accomplished that and I thank everyone for their support, their vision of

excellence for our district while constantly doing more with less.

Respectfully submitted,
Greg Whitehead 

Spring 2011

   Now that the Governor has released his new biennial budget, we are in the process of addressing the reduction of state funding for our district. In accordance with the information from the Office of Budget and Management, our district will face a $1,000,000 loss in the next fiscal year (FY12), a loss of $1,275,000 in the second year (FY13) and an additional loss of revenue of $615,608 in the third year (FY14). Thus, over the next three years our revenue loss from the state will total approximately $2.89 million dollars.

The biggest portion of our loss comes from the Tangible Personal Property Tax (TPPT) state reimbursements. In 2005, Ohio began to reduce the TPPT as part of a tax reform package meant to stimulate economic growth. However, schools were promised a long-term reimbursement of lost funds from the TPPT up to year 2019. The new biennial budget accelerates the phase out so that by the year 2015, our reimbursement is $620,330, rather than the $3.5 million received in fiscal year 2011.

This significant funding loss will have an overwhelming impact on the operations of our district. The board of education, administrative staff, MCTA and Teamster’s Union have been in negotiations about our budget and the anticipated state cuts.  In 2007 and 2010 we reduced personnel to balance our budget. I do not believe that we can continue to reduce personnel (job cuts) and offer the quality of service and education excellenceven   

Terry Blair, Representative           Peggy Lehner, Senator
77 S. High St.                                   1 Capitol Square
13th Floor                                        1st Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6111      Columbus, Ohio 43215
district38@ohr.state.oh.us          sd06@senate.state.oh.us
 

Respectfully submitted,
Greg Whitehead

September 23, 2010

Mid-September has arrived and homecoming festivities are only a week away. As the saying goes, don't blink because Fall break will be here before we know it. Thinking about that makes everyone happy!

Our district all-call system will be updated in the near future. Amazingly for the last five years the Community Safe system has been free. As a result of the split between Cincinnati Bell and Community Safe, the district will now be charged for the service. Three major all-call system companies presented proposals to the district. A decision will be made soon. I do not foresee this changing our ability to utilize an all-call system. Hopefully, it will create more opportunities for use by our various school groups.
 
As most of you know, Ohio will be receiving Race To The Top money. The first phase for our district is to complete the 54 page application on how we will budget those dollars over the next four years. The RttT team is composed of teachers, principals and central office administrators who will submit the application to ODE for approval by October 22. RttT money is to be used for the purpose of closing student achievement gaps and can only be spent on specific approved action plans. More information will be available as we move through the RttT process.

Respectfully submitted,
Gregory Whitehead
 

August 10, 2010

First I would like to say it is an honor and pleasure for me to serve as your Superintendent. Having spent most of my career in the Miamisburg School district as teacher, high school assistant principal, high school principal and human resources director, I now feel blessed with this new opportunity.  So many great people in this community have helped to make my career here wonderful. I also want to thank everyone for their emails, letters and cards of support and encouragement in this new position. I may need to take those out and read them a time or two in the future.

As I enter my first year at the helm of our district, I want to reassure everyone that we will be committed to providing the best possible education for each and every student at an effective cost. I take great pride in our past accomplishments. We must look forward with a philosophy that there is always room for improvement and maintain a “service above self” attitude.

As a district we will face challenges and problems as we continue to grow and build. Last year we faced the worst financial outlook for this district that I have witnessed during my tenure. Our community came together with a wave of support but we still face financial uncertainty. In spite of our levy success, we were forced to cut approximately $2.3 million dollars from our budget. The new budget will reflect   less teachers, higher class sizes, a slight reduction of course offerings at the high school and more shared resources between buildings.  Grim financial news from the state will continue to be monitored.  Every expenditure will be reviewed to evaluate its impact on the quality of education.

I believe the economy will get better and there is a bright future for Miamisburg City Schools. Our community is ready for the recovery with development (planned /under way) along the Austin Road interchange, the Mound and downtown Miamisburg. These improvements within our school boundaries will help strengthen our financial outlook.

Miamisburg Schools will continue to provide outstanding facilities, strong academic and special education programs, award-winning music and art programs, competitive sports and extracurricular activities for our students. Together, we will make the 2010-11 school year another successful year.

Respectfully submitted,
Gregory Whitehead
 

 pected in Miamisburg. I have asked our teachers and classified staff for concessions in the negotiated contracts to balance our budget and keep jobs in our district. Together, we are working hard to arrive at a plan to balance the budget and maintain our staff for at least the next two years.
The direction of the state to reduce its share of funding for education certainly increases the pressure on our district to rely more heavily on local support. As taxpayers, workers, and parents who have children in our district, you may want to voice whatever political influence you can to change the proposed school funding reduction and the direction of reliance on local property to fund education in Ohio.