PERRYSBURG — The school district will be giving money back to the state, it was announced Wednesday.
The governor announced $300 million in cuts to state funding of schools, due to the loss in state revenue
from the coronavirus pandemic.
Perrysburg schools will see a loss of $972,945, or 1.64%, in funding.
“We knew there were going to be cuts, but we did not anticipate that they would be this much,” said
Treasurer Pam Harrington.
Superintendent Tom Hosler announced the cuts at a Wednesday board of education meeting.
He said that the state gives Perrysburg payments with state aid. This quarter there are three payments.

“We get one on Friday that we don’t expect to be affected. The last three payments we get from the state
do not equal that amount,” said Superintendent Tom Hosler. “We’re not going to get a payment from the
state for the rest of the year and then we owe (the state) X amount of dollars back, depending on how
those payments were scheduled and how do we do that?”
The district gets payments of about $160,000 twice a month for this school year, with four left for the
year totaling approximately $640,000.
Rough numbers approximate the remainder owed to the state to be about $332,000. It’s unclear to Hosler
and Harrington exactly how the state will handle the payment process.
The amount the state is cutting comes from the per pupil funding that is pledged at the beginning of each
school year, which for Perrysburg was $2,321. That number is being cut by $191.
Each school district is different and Hosler does not know how the amount cut was determined. Other
districts are being cut different amounts ranging from less than $100 to more than $300 per pupil.
“Being a growing district, we’ve never been able to set aside for a rainy day fund,” Hosler said.
The estimated cash on hand balance for the district is $1.5 million.
This means the district will have to be making more cuts. The amount which is unknown.
The year has been so unusual with virtual classes and cuts to a wide variety of programs, from sports to
busing.
“We know there are going to be decreases in certain expenses,” Hosler said, giving the example of
utilities. “When you have 1,600 kids in the high school — kids are flushing toilets, washing their
hands, and doing things — we’re going to see a savings in utilities. We’re just now starting to get
those bills.”
Other examples of savings include the cost of diesel fuel for buses that are not running and unnecessary
substitute teachers because classes are being held online.
“There are still expenses going out, but that has obviously been reduced, so that is going to help us as
we close out this year,” Hosler said.
At the same time there are going to be added expenses in the fall.
“We’re in a process right now of doing an analysis of what are the things we are going to need to be
doing next year, regardless of which schedule we offer. Whether it’s a traditional, or a hybrid (school
year), we know that as students return, whenever that may be, we’re going to have to continue to have to
be mindful of all these things. Right now we’re looking at high traffic areas, like the cashier in the
cafeteria, secretaries, those high volume areas, and equipping them with a Plexiglas type of barrier,”
Hosler said.
Then there is cleaning.
Purchases of masks, gloves and cleaning supplies will be new costs and they will be scarce.
Normally the buildings would have one custodian during the day and two at night. With the cuts, he is
trying not to hire more custodians.
“We’re looking at flipping that model, with two during the day and one at night, to hit all those spots
that are being touched during the day. We want them to hit all those surfaces. In the evening, we really
don’t want people in the building. We want to close it up, so we start the next day with it being
clean,” Hosler said. “We don’t want to be chasing groups and cleaning up after them with manpower that
we don’t have. We may be asking for repurposing staff to have more responsibility in cleaning.
“Until there is a vaccine, or treatment, we’re all going to have to be custodians. We’re all going to
have to do our share, cleaning and making sure the environment around us is sanitized,” Hosler said.
For now he is waiting on the state and looking at budgets. Thursday morning he was negotiating the
purchase of a much larger amount of hand sanitizer, among other things.