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Board members voice concern over Ohio funding changes, vouchers and new suspension rules
Summary
Board members discussed recent state legislation, including a parents' bill of rights, expanded superintendent suspension authority, and potential cuts to Fair School Funding and increases to voucher funding; several trustees warned of budgetary consequences for public schools.
Fremont City School Board members spent a substantial portion of the meeting discussing recent actions and proposals at the Ohio statehouse, citing implications for district funding and student discipline policies.
Board member and legislative liaison Mr. Nally summarized several recent developments signed by Gov. Mike DeWine, including directives on educational supports for students in foster care and a "parents' bill of rights" requiring notification policies around student health and well-being. He also described new state language that allows superintendents to extend suspensions in 90‑day increments and observed the law does not set a clear outer limit on such extensions.
"The superintendent could, every 90 days, extend that and there's not an ending point," Nally said, adding that extended suspension authority "probably would end up going to the courts" if contested.
Nally and other trustees then turned to school funding. They described comments from the new speaker of the Ohio House proposing reductions to the later years of the Fair School Funding plan and cited proposals to increase voucher program allocations, which board members said could redirect public dollars to nonpublic schools. "Where we were told, don't worry about it ... now we're starting to see where $1,000,000,000 is coming out of the dollars that should have been going to our public schools," Nally said.
Board members warned that reducing the expected Fair School Funding support could force local districts to seek additional revenue at the local level—potentially via property-tax levies. "If this fair school funding program does not continue, what it does is push back on us as a board to go out to get more money," Nally said.
Why it matters: Changes to the state funding formula or to voucher allocations would directly affect district budgets, program offerings and potential levy decisions. Changes to discipline law could alter local processes for handling serious incidents and raise questions about due process and court involvement.
What the board will do next: The legislative liaison said he has distributed documents to board members and encouraged community members to contact his office for copies. Trustees did not take a formal vote on state policy positions during the meeting; the discussion was advisory and informational.
