Hopewell-Loudon presents State of the School

BASCOM—Hopewell-Loudon Superintendent Matt White provided the "State of the School" address Wednesday night alongside district Treasurer Nick Bergman, who is reportedly the youngest treasurer in Ohio. White said since making Hopewell-Loudon his professional home in 2021, the biggest challenge facing him was getting the public to trust the current administration. He said he aims to be as transparent as possible with Bergman later making similar sentiments, both welcoming any questions or comments from the local community. "Trust is a very fragile thing," White said. "... As a superintendent, my goal was to come in and build trust with not only the community but also the staff and board [of education]." He said other barriers he is working to overcome include communication between the school and the community, declining enrollment, a bus-driver shortage and limited classroom space. White also said that the school district has had financial difficulty in the last few years but reported the district had received funds from the Rover Oil Pipeline in 2019 but the district was operating in the red until 2021 before starting to stabilize its finances in 2022. In 2023, Hopewell-Loudon hired a financial consultant in 2023 to help create a strategic financial plan and sustainable revenue streams. White said his goal was to make sure the school's finances were balanced without asking voters for more tax money. After a recent community survey, White said that recent accomplishments have included the school adding a preschool classroom and commented that there is a current demand for more; however, he is unsure where other new classrooms will be built. He also said the school has been able to add back the art program after being discontinued in previous years due to a lack of interest from students and adding options for students to learn robotics and computer programming. White also reported that the community also asked for the district to work on paying its debt and improve current facilities. "We are an excellent school striving to be better," White said after Hopewell Loudon recently received an overall rating of a full five stars from the Ohio Department of Education and was one of only 68 schools out of all 611 in Ohio to receive a full rating. White finished by saying how proud he was of the current staff, who are so committed to serving the student body. He said that if they "were serious about being an excellent school striving to be better, we need to continue to find ways to get better, and we will do that." Then Bergman took a deep dive into the school's finances. He advised that his goal is always to enhance the district's fiscal responsibility. Before Bergman became the district treasurer in March of this year, the district was putting money into a permanent improvement "bucket" because of uncertainty of the future. Eventually the district stopped doing this to help build a more sustainable financial future. Bergman reported Hopewell-Loudon spent $10,638,262 but brought in $10,998,711 and was able to save just over $360,000. With approximately $7,000,000 spent on staff benefits and salaries, other expenditures include services, materials and equipment and fees. Hopewell-Loudon is able to bring in money from the state, property taxes, public utility taxes, income taxes, Bergman later explained that the amount of money from the state is calculated through a new "Fair School Funding Formula," which determines how much it costs the district to educate the average student and appropriate funds based on that calculation. It is estimated to cost $8,979 per year to educate one student at Hopewell-Loudon, though the state only pays $2,286 per year per enrolled student. With costs expected to rise, Bergman says the district is trying to save money in some ways by relying on on-campus solar panels for energy, investing in lawnmowers so landscaping isn't outsourced and applying for state and local grants. White then closed by saying "We can't settle into where we're at, we need to continue to move forward and get better at what we're doing. Our overall vision is to continue to improve this already great district and continue to make it better."