Ohio superintendent says state board of education may not make payroll by summer

The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.)

Newest superintendent’s goal target responsibilities of the board, rebuilding of relationships

BY: SUSAN TEBBEN – JANUARY 12, 2024 – Ohio Capital Journal

Pointing directly to changes made in the Ohio legislature’s most recent budget, Ohio’s new superintendent of public instruction said the State Board of Education is facing real funding issues.

“What we face, in terms of a budget deficit right now, is a clear and present danger for our ability to do the roles that we’ve been assigned to do,” Superintendent Paul Craft told the board at his first monthly meeting, a mere six days into his tenure.

The deficit was spelled out as part of an introduction of goals the superintendent has as he begins his job, and as the job and the role of the state board changes under the new Department of Education and Workforce. As superintendent, Craft also serves as secretary for the board.

To stem the funding issues, which Craft said amount to a shortfall of about $2 million for a $10 million total budget in the next fiscal year, he and board members will need to work with legislative partners “pretty quickly.”

“As we get into that June timeframe, we’ll probably not be able to make payroll,” Craft told the board. “That’s worrisome.”

He added that staffing issues could only get worse as the year goes on, and the board will continue its struggle to maintain current staff.

“There’s not a chance to cut our way through this and still do the educational licensure and educational professionalism functions with which we’ve been tasked,” he said.

Board member Meryl Johnson asked Craft directly if the budget bill, House Bill 33, “left us without enough funding to do our job.”

“Yeah,” Craft responded. “And again, that will happen from time to time. The governor had a good patch in (the budget) that would have gotten us through at least, I would say, three years. That was in the House version and it disappeared in the Senate version.”

To Johnson, the lack of adequate funding the board is seeing indicates state leaders who supported the changes that eliminated state board roles and authorities “want to put us out of business.”

Craft’s other proposed goals include building or rebuilding relationships between the state board and other “educational stakeholders” in an effort “to get as many interactions as we can around educational discussions … so that we continue to be viewed as a key component to the educational infrastructure in this state.”

“So those roles that we are given, we need to make sure we’re doing those in such a way that our districts and our other educational stakeholders say ‘they’ve got their stuff together, they’re doing what we need to support our staff and students throughout the state of Ohio,’” Craft said.

The superintendent also pledged to finish his dissertation, which he said was interrupted by the pandemic and its impact on educational data he studied. But board member John Hagan said that goal could stand to be back-burnered.

“As far as your continuing education, I would hope that that’s the lowest priority on your list, because I think you’ve got a lot to do here and probably won’t have a lot of spare time,” Hagan said.

One of the many other things on the superintendent’s list is a proposal by the Ohio Department of Administrative Services to move the state board to an office within the Ohio Department of Agriculture, located in Reynoldsburg.

While the cost of housing the board downtown versus moving to the A.B. Graham Building is only marginally different, according to Craft, the losses are more professional than financial.

“I think the loss we would get in terms of no longer being co-located with the other educational stakeholders in the state of Ohio, I can’t support from an operational perspective what the Department of Administrative Services would like to do with the team,” Craft said.

The superintendent said the board would probably need intervention from “some other state actors” to push back against the proposed move, along with the leveraging of relationships from the board members as well.

There was agreement among the members that the move did not seem necessary, nor were they in favor of it. The opposition brought on a resolution asking the director of the state DAS to appear in person before the board and explain the move.

“I see no rationale that makes any sense to move out there,” said member Walt Davis. “For us to be located out there is the Gulag, frankly, and I’m strenuously opposed to it.”

The state board’s next monthly meeting is scheduled for Feb. 12.