FHSD Board of Education Calls for Full Implementation of Ohio’s Fair School Funding Plan
FHSD Board of Education Calls for Full Implementation of Ohio’s Fair School Funding Plan
As state leaders in Ohio continue to discuss the biennial budget and consider possible changes to funding levels, members of the Forest Hills Board of Education are calling on lawmakers to take action to ensure the planned implementation of the Fair School Funding Plan continues and the FSFP is updated and fully funded.
The Board of Education has discussed the state budget and Fair School Funding Plan multiple times in the past few months. After originally passing a Resolution in Support of the Fair School Funding Plan and related testimony in March, the Board discussed and updated those documents during a regular meeting on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. You can view those documents here:
You can click the links above to read the documents in their entirety. Board President Bob Bibb, Vice President Wendy Strickler and Members Mark Bell and Jason Simmons voted in favor of adopting both items, as part of an effort to advocate “for a fair school funding system that supports all Ohio students and does not pit districts against one another in a zero-sum funding model.”
Under Governor Mike DeWine’s initial proposed budget recommendations, FHSD would see an approximately $2.8 million cut in state funding over the next five years. The Board warns that a reduction of this magnitude will place more of the burden on local communities to fund public education and may require local tax levies sooner than expected.
Specifically, the Board is calling on state lawmakers to “uphold their commitment to fair and adequate school funding by ensuring that future biennial budgets continue fully funding the FSFP including the guarantee and updating cost calculations to reflect the actual cost of educating Ohio’s students.”
Please click the following links to read the full Resolution and Testimony approved by the FHSD Board of Education. The resolution and testimony were updated in April to reflect new information based on the Ohio House of Representatives' version of the budget bill.
The Board of Education previously held a special meeting on Saturday, March 22, 2025 where they discussed earlier versions of the resolution and testimony. You can view the previous resolution here, and you can view the previous testimony here. This article was originally published on April 15, 2025 based on those documents and has since been updated to reflect the new versions.
