Van Buren Local Schools has been placed on ‘precautionary financial status’ by the Ohio Department of Education.

“What that indicates is that they recognize, and we recognize, that the district is deficit-spending and we need to put together a financial plan to address that shortfall,” Superintendent Tim Myers told WFIN News.

He says the district in 2020-2021 will be deficit-spending to the tune of 1.9 million dollars without making cuts and increasing revenue.

Myers says the district is looking at making cuts, evaluating programs and has put a 1 percent income tax back on the ballot on March 17th.

He says if the income tax passes it will bring in about $2.4 million a year, but they won’t start collecting that until April of 2021 so some reductions would still be necessary.

And if the income tax fails, they would have to cut nearly $2 million from their budget.

He says several factors have led to the district’s financial situation, one of the biggest being the loss of tangible personal property tax over the years and the fact that they’ve gotten no new revenue for a while.

“The last time this district asked for new revenue that was approved was 15 years ago, so inflation, loss of revenue…all those things are catching up with us.”