ADAMS TOWNSHIP — With the fate of open enrollment at Clinton-Massie an unknown at present, the board of education president said he hopes that worried parents of current open-enrolled students will have a clearer idea later this calendar year of what things would look like in the 2023-24 school year if open enrollment were to end.
New applications for open enrollment were paused in late May because under Ohio’s new school funding formula, the district will not get reimbursed as it has previously. But 242 CM students who already were part of the open-enrollment system at Clinton-Massie in 2021-22 were invited back for the school year that starts next month.
A new state biennial budget will be drawn up the first half of next year, presumably in the second quarter 2023, so there could be a change that affects the open-enrollment financial picture for schools like Massie.
Clinton-Massie Local Schools Board of Education President Jeremy Lamb said Monday he thinks the board needs to let the families of those 200-plus open-enrolled students know who could stay and who’s going to go if CM’s open enrollment does end up going away.
Lamb added he personally would find it hard to tell a high school youth who has attended Clinton-Massie nine or 10 years “that we’re going to make you leave. We’ll probably let you finish out — again, this is not official, we haven’t voted on it.”
If a fix does not come through a school funding formula change at the state level, there’s a possibility the district itself may offer to charge tuition to non-residential families who want their child to go to CM schools, the board president mentioned.
In other school items:
• The board approved a new one-year collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union. It contains a 4 percent increase in pay.
• The board held a closed-door executive session during Monday’s regular monthly meeting for the purpose of discussing specialized details of security arrangements, according to the agenda.
• Board members toured the reconfigured Annex space of a new school-based health center to be established on the Lebanon Road campus. The refurbishing work continues, but Supt. Matt Baker wanted the board to see the progress that’s been made.
The on-campus health center will be a regular business that is housed inside school-owned space, making it very convenient for the school district’s students and staff. Members of the general public also will be able to utilize the facility once it opens. Because of building supply issues, the opening is expected to take place in early October.
No school district tax dollars are being spent on the project.
• The next regular meeting of the school board will be 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 15 in the Annex S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Lab.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
