Westerville City Schools officials on Monday presented the district’s annual Student Wellness and Success and Disadvantaged Pupil Impact Aid plan, saying state dollars have decreased while the district continues to use local funds to maintain counseling, nursing and reading-intervention services.

District staff told the board the Student Wellness and Success allocation for fiscal 2026 is estimated at $995,035.26, a reduction of $241,747 from last year, and the Disadvantaged Pupil Impact Aid estimate is $1,028,052, reduced by $22,008.72. Miss Marshall, the district treasurer, said those cuts reflect a drop in the state share and emphasized these are reporting requirements for funds the district already receives.

The report detailed how the district spends those dollars. School social workers, mental-health staff and nurses are supported with wellness funds; at the elementary level, Disadvantaged Pupil Impact Aid mainly funds small-group, evidence-based reading intervention aligned to the science of reading. Cheryl Relford, a district staff member who oversees elementary reading services, said a recent change in legislation required the district to lower reading-intervention group size from five to four students: “we had to lower our number of students that we service in reading intervention from 5 to 4.”

Nick McElwain, who described the district’s Educational Options for Success (EOS) program, said about 200 students used EOS last year. McElwain said EOS typically serves upperclassmen at risk of not graduating and that the program accounted for roughly 10% of district graduates; staff reported the program issued about 580 course credits last year, compared with a more typical year of roughly 450 credits.

Officials said the district uses universal screeners—identified in the presentation as I-Ready diagnostics and DIBELS—to identify students for intervention, and that progress monitoring and additional diagnostic assessments guide who receives tiered reading services. The team described three tiers: Tier 1 whole-class instruction, Tier 2 teacher-delivered interventions within the classroom, and Tier 3 intensive small-group reading intervention.

Board members asked about how families are notified and how interventions are scheduled. Staff said families receive screener letters and that reading-intervention teachers follow up with direct communications (letters, phone calls, email or folders sent home) describing the interventions and progress. Staff also said interventions are scheduled to avoid core instruction, often during center rotations or independent practice time, and that grades K–3 are the primary focus at the start of the year with K–5 coverage expanding in January based on need.

Board discussion also flagged the district’s additional $2.9 million in general‑fund support for these services, noted that some buildings use Title I federal funds to provide extra reading-teacher staffing, and emphasized potential program reductions should a fall levy not pass. Superintendent Hamburg told the board that administrators will present possible reductions to consider at a September 22 meeting if necessary.

No formal board action was taken on this presentation; it was delivered as the district’s required annual report and will be posted to the district website within 30 days of the presentation, as staff noted.

“We are working to highlight topics of interest to our staff, increase our available challenges and professional development day offerings, as well as provide more information about general wellness, our insurance programs, and our employee assistance programs offerings,” Miss Bishop, who presented the employee-wellness portion, told the board earlier in the meeting. She also noted employee-wellness funding comes from an administrative-fee credit by Anthem and flows through the district self‑insurance fund, not the general fund.

The report included program-level context—how many students are served per reading-intervention caseload, how the EOS program structures split days and morning/afternoon sessions, and evidence from EOS surveys showing reported reductions in anxiety for participants. Staff said they will continue tracking graduation outcomes, credit attainment and social‑emotional survey results to measure program impact.

Board members and staff emphasized the distinction between required spending and additional services the district provides: as Treasurer Marshall said during the presentation, “not new funds, just new requirements.”

The district did not vote to change policy or adopt new expenditures at the meeting; the presentation served as the required annual reporting of how Student Wellness and Success and Disadvantaged Pupil Impact Aid dollars are used.