Nagel students arriving to the open house tonight were stunned to discover that the student-painted inclusive mural celebrating the diverse authenticity that our students represent has been hidden behind a black tarp with the simple words, "Honest Connections". Several parents received shocked texts like the one shown here as students learned of the change.

In June of 2022, a reliable source suggested that the new board members stated their intentions to pass the Culture of Kindness resolution and use that as a basis to remove the student-created mural from the view of Nagel students and staff. The resolution, passed by the Republican-endorsed school board members Bibb, Jonas, and Hausfeld resulted in an on-going legal battle and depositions of several board members and Superintendent Hook (Depositions can be found here for Jonas, Rasmussen, and Hook) and a former student writing a scathing Op-Ed in the Cincinnati Enquirer. 

Rules suggest the board needs to take an open vote to remove the mural, but in the absence of this, a principal may make the decision under the category of "routine maintenance" with the support of the Superintendent and board. Advocate FHSD has submitted a public records request to understand the source of the decision and determine if any link to the Culture of Kindness effort exists. 

Students leaving the Open House were informally asked about their feelings on the change, and several stated they were disappointed, and one stated "it felt like a shock, like that it's not okay to celebrate who we are here. Why would they hide something that lets people feel its okay to be themselves here?" 

From a timing perspective, wherever this decision came from, it is incredibly poor; in relation to the start of school and open houses & the shock that students would feel, not to mention the potential impact on active campaigns for open board seats. Could this decision possibly drive voter enthusiasm & stronger voter turnout for candidates running on a platform of inclusivity for all students?

If the members of the administration were responsible, this is a significant misstep with regard to the community relationship, and we've heard from a number of teachers that no communication to staff was initiated, either. With a board meeting scheduled for August 16th, why not announce the intent to change, or take a vote by the board to ensure transparency and protect the community from speculation and overreaction and allow parents to prepare students for the change? 

Banners similar to the one shown are placed in all stairwells which indicates some consistency, and other murals not originally targeted by the "4 for Forest Hills" that drove less controversy are still visible. Some may appreciate that the decision to hide the mural with a large printed banner suggests they had time to order the sign in advance, why not take that time to communicate the intent in advance at the upcoming board meeting and to staff as well?

We will continue to update the blog as more information becomes available, and evidence of the origins of the decision are provided. 

As a side note, Advocate FHSD will be creating & donating 1000 free stickers of the mural in honor of the student art and making the stickers available for students to add to binders, water bottles, notebooks and lunch containers should they want one to remind themselves and others that in this community, no matter your race, gender, religion or sexual orientation there are more people that celebrate our community's diversity than those that do not. Please stay tuned, we'll be digging in to see where the origin of the decision lies, and why no communication of the change was provided to the community in advance. 

It's official ... we now have our list of 2023 school board candidates for the Forest Hills School District (FHSD). They've turned in their petitions and while one candidate is still waiting to have his signatures confirmed, it is likely district residents will see these names on the ballot for FHSD school board on November 7th, 2023. While Advocate FHSD does not endorse candidates, we are committed to presenting election information as quickly and as accurately as possible.

Stay tuned for more updates as the campaign unfolds.

In late 2022, a lawsuit against the Forest Hills School District suing to rescind the controversial and divisive 'Culture of Kindness' resolution was brought forth.  

Community members widely panned the document as harmful to staff & students, and risky to the district. Despite protests, emails asking for the resolution to be rescinded, national and international negative news coverage, damage to their personal reputations and expensive lawsuits as well as the predictable impact to voter turnout to the levy vote in May - Board members Hausfeld, Bibb, and Stewart seem inexplicably committed to this misguided Resolution. 

Recently, depositions were taken from Superintendent Larry Hook, Board Member Sara Jonas, and Board member Dr. Leslie Rasmussen. Depositions are available for the public to read here. 

Cincinnati Enquirer's Education reporter, Maddie Mitchell, published an article Wednesday, February 15 2023, following up with a summary of the depositions. 

The depositions are disheartening. The statements taken under oath expose conflicting claims of that the Resolution is "unenforceable", but per the depositions, incidents of enforcement and attempted enforcement have occurred against staff & students causing demonstrable harm - the depositions outline at least four instances of action taken against staff and students. 

The resolution has also brought negative press to the district locally, nationally and internationally.. In addition to our local press, national & international media went viral as a TikTok video of Sara Jonas defending "Anti-anti-racism" had over 5 million views and thousands of comments. Nationally, Newsweek covered the video, and an article in the Herald Sun, an Australian publication, ensured international scrutiny as well. 

Sara Jonas reportedly received emailed threats following the publications of her actions, which this group vehemently condemns. Knowing all of this, any reasonable person would question why the board insists on defending the document at all ... but there may be some insight in page 130 of Sara Jonas' deposition.

When questioned about the origins of the document, Sara Jonas under oath stated she merely 'typed' the Resolution - a clear conflict with her public statement at a public board meeting, June 22, 2022 (audio available on YouTube, at 1:32:00) where she claimed,  "I am the one who authored it." ​

​Consolidation activity would impact every resident in Anderson Township and Newtown in several ways, and understanding the details behind the impact may help residents better evaluate the risks and challenges. 

(1) No opportunity for lower levies as no net reduction in building maintenance costs likely

• New build at Bartels should come close to replacing AHS to accommodate merge
  • Square footage (sq ft) for proposed new build uncertain
    • AHS was 209,827 sq ft, investment from 2014 bond expanded to 234,304 sq ft
    • Investment in to Anderson High School in last 10 years exceeded $25M
    • THS site is 218,847 sq ft, Mercer is 94,990 sq ft ... net need 134,314 sq ft
    • Link to record of footprint received via public records request

Since the last school board meeting, members of the AdvocateFHSD.org leadership team were able to meet with Rich Neumann of the Architectural firm Elevar to see the details of consolidation, and discuss the financial details of the consolidation plan with Andy Brossart, of the firm Bradley Payne, a registered Municipal Advisory firm with the SEC and the MSRB. 

​Following the meeting, the leadership team worked to collect questions from the community to pass along to the board, with the understanding that the board would review & work to facilitate a community forum, either virtual or in person, that they have not scheduled nor indicated they might schedule before the November board meeting planned for 11/16. 

The plan, which proposes to save the district money, reduce future levy millages and reduce the frequency of levies, indicates no reason to believe any of these claims are without significant risk if not completely unproven. The proposal also impacts every single student in the FHSD system through redistricting, reshuffling of grades to different sites, and transportation changes. In tonight's blog, we'll review the financial details. 

The plan as proposed will impact financial aspects of our district as well as students & staff and the community widely, tonight - because the content is so voluminous we will only address the financial impact as we analyzed it. 

The information provided below is based off of information shared mid-October, and, we recognize is likely to change with the final proposal expected this week or next. We also understand this is extremely complex, and to offer additional support to the community we will host a live Facebook Chat on Sunday, November 6th at 7:15pm to answer questions. 

FINANCIAL SUMMARY IS JUST ANOTHER LOAN WITH NEW DEBT TO SERVICE 
The plan is complex, using the creation of a pseudo-municipal entity (New Community Authority) called an NCA allowed under Ohio Revised Code 349 to issue bonds, levy an income tax and potentially a sales tax inside the boundary of the current Anderson High School site. 

The NCA potentially enables the plan to avoid an auction, which would potentially invite other buyers or developers to engage, and in our opinion gives Elevar a distinct advantage over other potential competitors. Under ORC 349, the NCA is empowered to issue 37-yr bonds at current interest rates, which are the highest in 30 years. 

The responsibility for payment of the bonds would be shared between the future developers and the district. Andy Brossart of Bradley Payne advised the estimate (based on the plan we saw mid-October) for the annual service debt payment would be $9.6M, of which the district is responsible for $4.3M. The district's portion of the payment would be generated through a Permanent Improvement fund of 1.87 mills (not yet approved by voters) and re-allocation of any savings the district might see from efficiencies, claimed to be between $1.5 and $3M. 

THE DEVIL IS IN THE FINANCIAL DETAILS
The NCA would issue bonds for $120M for building & renovations, and $24 to $42M of "other"

$60M is planned for new building which would house the additional 9-12 graders, positioned in the current parking lot between THS and Mercer, eliminating parking in that area.
$25M was noted as the funding required for the addition at Nagel, to house all 6th graders; this is the equivalent of adding an elementary school (Summit has 600 kids, for example)
$15M was earmarked for updates to the stadium to hold up to 8,000 fans, including "club" type seats for paying Boosters. 
$10M was estimated for updates to the theater and natatorium
$8M additional classrooms at various elementary schools (may be eliminated from plan)


The "other" category is where we see the most financial risk for the district 

$16.2M is incorporated to pay off the remaining value of AHS in our 2014-approved bond

• This action extends the payoff by another 12 years and at an increased interest rate
• Estimated payoff value is around $40M (assumes interest at 6% over 37 yrs)

$4.0M is incorporated to delay the need for a levy, as we understand it

• Loans for operating costs never suggest a solvent entity
• Estimated payoff value is nearly $10M (assumes interest at 6% over 37 years)

$4.8M is incorporated to cover the cost of interest on the bonds (referenced as COI @4%)
$16.1M is incorporated to cover the cost of capital interest (referenced in the plan as CAPI)

WHAT IS THIS "TIF" WE HEAR ABOUT, AND DOESN'T THAT FUND THE CONSOLIDATION?

TIF stands for Tax Increment Financing, and the World Bank website does a great job of explaining how a TIF  works in detail. For our purposes, one needs to know that the bonds issued need to have the debt service paid annually, and a portion of that debt service is to be paid by the revenue generated in the land designated inside the TIF boundary.  Slightly more than half of the debt service payment is intended to come from the TIF, the remainder must be paid for by the district. 

The TIF boundaries will be set by the township, following a vote by the school board. We were told the TIF boundaries would likely house a hotel, a potential medical facility, "high-end" one-bedroom and studio apartments or condominiums as well as retail all surrounding a common green-space or park as well where Anderson High School currently exists on just under 50 acres.  

As shared, the TIF intended to fund the $5.3 million debt service payment doesn’t have a lot of details.  

Below, we outline the sources that represents the funding for the payment of the debt service by the developer. 

• $1.1M to be raised via a 1% income tax on workers & residents in the TIF boundaries
• $144,000 to be raised via a 3% hotel tax
• $400,000 to be raised by some other tax (this wasn't made clear)
• $20,000 from a sales tax for revenue generated at retail sites within TIF boundaries
• $1.5M from a source yet to be determined.  

CAN WE TRUST THESE ASSUMPTIONS?

We can’t subject any scrutiny to the $400,000 “other tax” or to the $1.5 million “yet to be determined” because there isn’t anything to analyze yet, but we evaluated the numbers - and they simply don't stand up to reasonable scrutiny. The two we'll get into detail on below are the TIF Funding on a 1% income tax within the NCA and a 3% hotel occupancy tax do not appear to produce the amount of money the plan says they will.  Both merit further inspection.   

Challenging the hotel assumptions is where we will begin. 

A hotel has long been discussed, but to date, no commitments from any chains have been made, and, the trustees have reiterated over and over their desire is to see a hotel be positioned on or near the Kellogg avenue sites, for many appealing reasons to hotel chains and consumers alike. Proximity to a highway for one, and proximity to attractions like the racetrack and Coney Island and Riverbend make for a more appealing location. 

In order to achieve the stated $144K for the hotel tax, the site would need to generate $4.8M in annual room revenue.  Assuming a 100 room hotel operating at 65% capacity, the hotel would need to charge $202/night to reach that target.  $202/night for a hotel in Anderson when comparable nearby hotels in Milford and Eastgate charge around $120/night is unlikely, and if the Anderson hotel needed to be competitively priced to sell anything it would only generate $2.85 million in room rental revenue per year, yielding only $85,500 in tax, $60,000 short of its target.  For perspective, even if the hotel was 100% occupied from day one it would still be almost $13,000 short of its target.​

What's the math on a payroll tax of 1%?

The other known component of the TIF is $1.1 million per year from the 1% payroll tax on employees and residents.  The plan shows 5 sources for this revenue: the hotel, the restaurants, bars and retail shops in the complex, the medical facility and the residents.  in order to generate the estimated $1.1M in TIF from income, we need nearly $110M in income - and the estimates we believe are unsupported by real data and fall short by 52%. 

• Hotel Income Tax – Industry data assumes 12% profitability and labor costs of 46% of operating costs, a hotel generating $2.85 million in revenue would have an estimated  total payroll of $1.2M and at 1% that would yield a tax of $11,540.   (Link to Township Hotel Study here for reference)
• Bars, Restaurants and Retail – We estimate this only achieves $22-23K in tax revenue. Assuming 12 bars and 12 retail sites, National statistics tell us the average bar and restaurant in the US does about $330K in annual revenue, we assumed $400K.  Average employment costs are about 30% of revenue meaning each bar will have a payroll of $120,000 or a total of $1,440,000.  At a 1% income tax that would then yield $14,400.  Assuming 12 small retail shops, each with $75,000 annual payrolls yields  $9000 in taxes.  

• Any Medical Facility – We assume that the medical facility generates twice as much as the hotel/bars/retail, resulting in $69,700 in taxes, requiring a $7M payroll 
• Resident Income Taxes - The new Vantage Apartment Complex already under construction a mile away on Five Mile Road that will not have a local income tax will have 224 new units. Average annual household income in Anderson is $138,168.  Assuming new apartments going into TIF boundary is the same as 5 mile, and they have 100% occupation and the same current average household income, total payroll would be $30,949,632 and yield $309,496 in income tax.   

THE ASSUMPTIONS IN THE PLAN DO NOT SEEM TO HOLD UP TO DEEPER EVALUATION
Generously, those sources only sum to $518,000, less than half of the $1.1 million shown by the architects of the plan. Combined with the estimated gap in the hotel tax, the known portions of the TIF look to be some $640,000 or 52% short, and since we don’t even know the planned sources of the almost $4 million of TIF funding, at a minimum we need to call to question the ability of the TIF to routinely deliver it’s part of the annual debt payment without other plans. 

The main reason that the previous effort to sell Anderson High School to a developer and rebuild it on Beech Acres property using a similar TIF was that the TIF could not produce nearly enough revenue to offset the borrowing costs of the new high school.  This proposed project, and the debt it proposes to take on, is much larger. 

The TIF is intended to cover 55% of the debt service, how does the district cover the rest?

The district is responsible for around 45% of the debt service, or $4.3M. Andy Brossart, the financial advisor working the numbers, advised the TIF will definitely not cover everything. The plan relies on a Permanent Improvement fund from the district being passed, and, projected operational and facilities savings that would be re-directed to pay the district's portion of the service debt annually. 

What are permanent improvement funds? 
Permanent Improvement (PI) funds are levied the same way operating levies are for school districts, but these funds are dedicated to general school maintenance as outlined by Superintendent Hook in the October 19th board meeting. 

Today, the district would need to pass a levy to generate the 1.87 mills (generates around $3M in revenue) needed to pay the service debt. Taxpayer money sent to this PI would not be available to serve the needs of the district but instead would be dedicated to paying off a portion of the new debt.

Additional PI funding would still need to be levied to maintain the district's buildings, and, the district still needs to generate $1.3-$1.5M to close the gap on it's portion of the debt service.

What about the savings we should realize from fewer buildings & administrators?

Plan creators suggested that efficiencies created by consolidating two high schools and reducing the district by one  elementary school would generate around $1.5M in savings. This though, would not be felt in district finances, as those savings would be redirected to pay debt service.

The premise itself is also unproven, as there is no reason to believe fewer administrators would be needed for the same number of students if we are to sustain  reasonable workloads for administrators and safe practices for student to administrator ratios. 

In addition, we don't significantly reduce the square footage of buildings when to execute the plan, we add on the equivalent of an elementary school building at Nagel to house 600+ 6th grade students and, an additional building plus a proposed skywalk at Turpin. 

The assumptions of savings simply do not align with reasonable educational practices, and, taking steps to execute the proposal in this way could put students at significant risk as well as make working environments unsustainable for staff. 

For these reasons, we do not believe the estimated savings are real nor reasonable to assume that they are practical to implement nor based on a safety-focused construct. 

WHAT ELSE IS LIKELY TO IMPACT DISTRICT FINANCIALS WITH THIS PLAN?

The proposed plan showed a construction site at both Nagel and THS, which impacts the community significantly, and, likely would require additional busing for all middle-school and high school students. Gas prices are up, the cost of bus maintenance and replacement is also a significant source of cost for the district, and requiring fewer individual drivers and more buses hits the district hard. 

WHAT IS NEXT THEN?
As we offer in our next blog post a summary of the construction plan, we can explain in more detail, but we hope you'll all reach out to the board first, to share your thoughts at board@foresthills.edu, and our trustees to let them know what your thoughts are on this plan, as they too will be involved if the school board plans to proceed. 

We hope you'll stay connected and share this information with other residents, who may not even yet be aware that this is nearing a deadline for a decision to be made, in November or mid-December at the latest. 

As always thank you for Advocating with us for district excellence!

    Anderson resident and former FHSD Board Member Rich Neuman has decades of experience in deal-making. As President of Baseball Development for Mandalay Baseball Properties and then as a VP of Major Accounts for Brailsford & Dunlavey, he pitched communities on new/renovated sports facilities and negotiated millions of dollars in sponsorships, naming rights, etc .  He also was/is an expert in relationship development and innovative proposals that use a mixture of public and private funds (and optimistic revenue projections) to secure financing.

    Now, as a consultant for Elevar Design Group (formerly SFA Architects), Neumann has proposed the sale of Anderson High School for private, mixed-use development. High school students would move to the “Bartels campus,” and elementary students would be reshuffled as part of a consolidation. Innovative, indeed.

    To succeed in deal-making one must be persistent, and Neumann is nothing if not persistent. In fact, he attempted to consolidate the two FHSD high schools in 2010 when he was on the school board, and was involved in an earlier more detailed study in 2005. 

    During that scheme, he and others were sued for closed door meetings that were subject to sunshine law. Once the Cincinnati Enquirer’s lawsuit brought the issue to light, public meetings were held and the community responded that no—they did not want to consolidate high schools.

    In 2015, he brought forward another plan to sell Anderson High School: “The Plan that Makes Too Much Sense". Many of the players involved in 2015 are the same players involved now:  Neuman, Tom Fernandez of Elevar/SFA, Andrew Brossart of Bradley Payne Advisors (formerly with 5/3 Securities), etc. As part of the 2015 plan, Anderson High School would have sold for a dollar as part of a multi-part land swap placing a new high school on Beech Acres property.  Ultimately, all parties agreed that deal was not feasible. Notably, the plan would use the $25 million earmarked for Anderson renovations toward the new school.

October 19th the Board of Education (BOE) and Administration shared some financials that may seem dramatic to many, and we thought we'd offer a few important facts to help our community better understand the issues at hand, and, the reason understanding this is so important.

State funding is insufficient, and places constraints on the ability of Ohio school districts to generate revenue

In 1976 Ohio passed a law referred to as HB920 that prevents the millage paid from property taxes to rise as property values rise, forcing all districts in Ohio to pass levies every 3-5 years on average. Levies passed for 4+ years are often very high and it is difficult to plan for unpredictable cost increases within the life of an operating levy.

In 1997, the Ohio Supreme Court declared the State's school funding system unconstitutional, specifically citing four major flaws in the system, including insufficient state funding for school facilities and a flawed school funding formula.

In the 2021 financial summary, the Administration showed 28% of FHSD funding comes from the state, and that has been declining for years. 

The failure to act has caused a self-imposed crisis … 

The board was advised early this year that the Forest Hills School District (FHSD), like all others in Ohio, needed to pass a levy and the levy millage would increase the longer they waited due to projected gaps/shortfalls. 

For reference, the term "millage" is derived from a Latin word millesimum, meaning thousandth, with 1 mill being equal to 1/1000th of a currency unit. As used in relation to property tax, 1 mill is equal to $1 in property tax, which is levied per $1,000 of a property's determined taxable value. Going forward, we will reference any millage as “mill”. 

If the board had put a levy on the ballot this November 2022, they would have been able to ask for only 4.2 mill which translates to about $515 annually for a home valued at $350K (about $1.41 per day).

If the board decided to wait, FHSD Treasurer Alana Cropper advised the levy would likely be 6.7 mill, or about $820 annually for a home valued at $350K (about $2.25 per day).

See a simple table for mills per house value here

Two of the current school board members, Bob Bibb and Katie Stewart, led the campaign against the 2019 levy. They were joined by Sara Jonas and Linda Hausfeld to campaign AGAINST any future levies during their race in 2021.

A smart move 30+ years ago is no longer supporting the need … 

The Permanent Improvement fund (PI fund) is slowly depleting and will soon need to be supported with a millage increase via a levy as well. In the 1980’s, the FHSD set aside some $$ and used only the interest earned to pay for capital projects (the only thing PI fund is allowed to be spent on, per Ohio law). Interest on that fund was earning around $1M per year, until the early 2010’s, when it was only averaging $20K per year.

In short, decisions made by the board in place 30 years ago saved the community money by avoiding a PI fund for decades, however, this decision avoided the community's familiarity with precedent and additional millage now needs to be explained for community education. 

In 2019, a 1/2 mill value was included in the levy, to help support the PIF, but it has not been enough to both support the repairs of the district AND help pay off the bond from 2014. One year ago, the Permanent Improvement Fund was $4.4M, and is now $1.8M. Remember, money in this bucket can only be used for capital improvements (roof replacement, asphalt, painting, etc.) 

Why do we need to know all of this?

In the October meeting, the board may show a significant gap in our revenue vs our projected costs, and it could be viewed as a tactic to create urgency where the public feels compelled to make rash, poorly-researched decisions, like consolidation. We want to make sure the community has a chance to hear the information with an existing baseline of understanding. 

As a result of this board's decision to delay a levy past 2022, this board has decided to accept the need to ask the community for a higher mill for operating costs, and, pass that emergency on to the community they committed to serve as elected leaders.

The discussion during October's board meeting confirmed Alana's statement earlier in the year, when she stated that the assessment is still largely unchanged, the total millage likely needed from the community if a levy were to be proposed in 2023 is around 6.5-7.0. (See impact of that millage per home market value here)

Consolidation isn't the only way we can address this stress ... one near-term way we as individuals can take action is by voting for state legislative candidates that support funding public schools (Vote early now, election is Nov 8) and have committed to take action to address the state issues. We hope the board quickly considers & presents other options as well, or, moves quickly to get a levy on the ballot for May 2023. 


What should I do with this information?

Continue sharing this information and this website with friends, neighbors, and family in the district. Knowledge is power, and the increased awareness serves as wide-spread oversight and the protection from misleading information. We need to remain vigilant and aware of the opportunities and risks our district faces so we can work together with the board and administration to outline possible solutions to the issues that are mutually agreeable to the leadership and this community.

The current school board has stated on multiple occasions that financial problems have been inherited from the previous school board. Alana Cropper is the District Treasurer and has worked under many boards, including the present one. She has done a great job attempting to educate this school board about the district financials. Alana has even presented multiple options for an operating levy in either 2022 or 2023 to avoid large cuts and last resorts like consolidation. Her explanation can be found in a video from the April 6, 2022 Work Session. We would now like to present the 2021 Financial Report to you for your consideration:

After prom is an important way to give the students something fun and safe to do after the big dance. The party can continue long after the music stops with a little help from the community! This fundraiser is competition style. So wear your school colors and donate to your favorite High School. There will be two competing outdoor bars, themed cocktails and themed food items. So come and join the fun at Dead Low Brewing! Check out the flyer and download it as a reminder below. As always, you can find this event and more on our event calendar.