ONTARIO — Ontario students will likely be required to wear masks for the duration of the month due to an uptick in illness, Supt. Lisa Carmichael said at a Tuesday night board meeting.
“We look at this data each and every day. We look at the absences and we look at staffing. Right now, I’d say it’s safe to say the masks are going to stay for the month of January at least.”
The district re-implemented a temporary mask mandate on Jan. 3 in response to a rise in COVID-19 cases.
The weekly case count from Jan. 3 to Jan. 7 was the highest Ontario has seen since the week of Aug. 30, when 43 students and three staff members tested positive.
During the week of Jan. 3, there were 29 new student cases and 10 new staff cases reported.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there have been 18 positive student cases reported this week, assistant superintendent Mike Ream told the board.
“We’re definitely at another peak, another wave of high numbers. Usually Monday and Tuesday are our highest totals for the week,” he said.
COVID cases among children haven risen statewide since mid-October, driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant. Some schools, including Mansfield Middle School and Mansfield Senior High and the Crestline school district, have transitioned to remote learning due to staff and student illness.
The board also passed a resolution to proceed with the submission of a ballot issue that would combine and renew two expiring emergency tax levies. The issue will appear on the May 3 ballot.
If passed, the renewal will generate a total of $3,255,000 per year for a period of 10 years.
Emergency operating levies are known as “dollar” levies, meaning they generate the same dollar amount of money each year regardless of property values. Thus, the millage rate of an emergency levy fluctuates over time.
If passed, the levy would be 10.2 mills in 2022 — or $1.02 for every $100 of property tax value.
The board voted to combine the two levies at its December meeting.
Treasurer Randy Harvey provided an overview of the district’s finances, including its spending and revenue per pupil as compared to other school districts in the region.
According to data Harvey pulled from the Ohio Department of Education, Ontario has the 11th lowest total total spending per pupil in the state of Ohio during fiscal year 2021 at $9,706.69 per student per school year. The district had the 9th lowest total revenue per pupil per school year at $11,572.44.
Harvey said the district has benefitted from the new school funding model enacted in the state’s biennial budget last summer. The old formula determined state funding for school districts based partially on residents’ average income. The new formula funds uses median income, which Harvey says provides a more accurate picture of a district’s wealth.
In 2019, the average income for an Ontario resident was $98,019. The median income was $37,430.
“You have several very very wealthy people and it skews the average,” Harvey explained. “That’s why you’ve got to use median income.”
