In 2016, the district began work on a community-led Master Facilities Plan to address aging schools, growing enrollment and to provide an updated learning environment for students and staff. In 2018, we were able to accomplish Phase 1 of the plan by passing a bond levy and operating levy, which renovated and added on to our four middle schools, and changed our grade configuration so that sixth graders now attend our middle schools, creating more space in our elementary buildings for our increasing enrollment. 

The November ballot issues would fund Phase 2 of the plan, which would rebuild Thomas Worthington High School and renovate Worthington Kilbourne High School.

The district will be able to complete Phase 2 of the Master Facilities Plan and provide updated high schools for our students and community, in addition to providing a designated funding source for ongoing maintenance of our properties.

The operating levy will provide needed revenue to continue current programming and offerings amid an expected enrollment growth of 600 students during the next 4 - 5 years.

The reality is there is no “zero cost” option. We are spending dollars patching and repairing our aging schools, which impacts the dollars we spend in the classroom.

Students will continue to learn in outdated classroom spaces and labs, crowded hallways, flooded basements. We would need to continue to make costly repairs to buildings and systems that have exceeded their useful life.
                                                                                     
Without additional operating dollars, the district will have to consider making reductions, including reducing the number of teachers and courses offered and increasing class sizes.

The projected additional cost if both issues pass is $203 per $100,000 of appraised home value in year one, and an additional $70 per year per $100,000 of appraised home value for each of the following three years. You can find your official appraised value for tax purposes on the Franklin County Auditor's website.

Every property owner within the Worthington School District pays the same gross tax rate, regardless if the property is in Worthington, Riverlea, Columbus, Dublin, Westerville, Sharon, or Perry Township.

Generally, funding for our schools does not increase with inflation. This is due to a 50 year-old law known as HB 920. 

While HB 920 protects homeowners from large increases in voted taxes as a result of an increase in value, it also prohibits school districts from collecting additional revenue, except "inside millage", which is 4.5 mills, a small portion of the total rate. Thus, unless new tax issues are passed, local revenue for schools remains relatively stagnant.

While the Fair School Funding Plan significantly changes how K-12 school district funding is calculated, it has little impact on our district. This is because the new formula is based on school district property valuation and district residents’ income, both measures of a community’s ability to pay. So districts like Worthington (considered wealthy by the new formula) must rely more and more on local property taxes for additional revenue.

Worthington Schools has a strong track record of conservative fiscal management. The district realized real savings to the budget due to increasing employee contributions to healthcare costs, partnering with other districts to reduce utility cost increases, and extending the teacher year to increase professional development time and lessen the need for substitutes. Over the past 16 years, the district has averaged an annual increase in total expenses of 2.5%, in line with cost of living increases as measured by social security. 

We are extremely appreciative of the funds received from the federal government through the CARES Act, which helped keep up with increases in cost in order to meet students' needs during COVID. However, these funds represent a one-time influx in funds and are not ongoing.

The last levy passed in 2018 was projected to last 4 years, which we were able to accomplish even during times of record inflation.

In addition, we were able to complete Phase 1 of the Master Facilities Plan. As a result, we renovated and added on to our four middle schools, and changed our grade configuration so that sixth graders now attend our middle schools, creating more space in our elementary buildings for our increasing enrollment. 

The current ballot issue would complete Phase 2 of the plan, which includes replacing and renovating Thomas Worthington High School and renovating Worthington Kilbourne High School, and provide a permanent funding source for our buses, back-end technology and equipment needs.

The operating levy would provide funding to add new staff to keep up with inflation and growing enrollment.