ENGLEWOOD — The presentation of this year’s student art selected for display in the Northmont Board of Education office was one of the highlights of the district’s board meeting on June 26.

The board praised Grace Brown, who just graduated from Northmont High School, as they presented her with the framed art she made of her grandfather, Mike Knapke. He was on hand and smiling along with

Brown as she received the honors.

The other highlight was the swearing in of Jacob Hobbs, who was named Student Representative to the Board for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. Board member Thomas Walker, Jr., introduced Hobbs to the board and visitors, as the board members, along with Superintendent Tony Thomas and Treasurer Ann Ferraro welcomed him.

“I want to say a few things about the Town Meeting program the (Northmont Area) Chamber of Commerce put on the other night,” said Board President Linda Blum.

“Some take aways — Mr. Thomas and our treasurer, Ann Ferraro, did an awesome job of trying to explain a school funding formula that even most adults who are in the state legislature don’t understand. Some points were about the 5-year forecast and how this comes into being and how the state of Ohio is into the middle of its budgeting process right now,” Blum said.

“They’re supposed to have a budget by the end of June 30. It’s been voted down by the Senate, and the House and Senate couldn’t agree, so they are now in a committee of six people that are trying to make compromises to figure it out. Yet, we’re supposed to have our budget done without knowing what the state is going to give us in terms of our revenue,” Blum noted.

Blum said that Thomas and Ferraro spent some time talking about that and House Bill 920, passed in 1975, adding that it has been a real problem for the district.

“It says that if the vote is 5 mills, whatever it equates to dollar-wise, we never collect more than that from the property owner,” Blum said.

Long story short, HB 920 has been a real problem for the district, in that it is pretty much flat, she said.

“When the money is flat, our levy money coming in is flat and our money from the state is flat,” she said.

There is not much coming in, which means trouble when it comes to meeting expenses, Blum emphasized.

Later, in his report, Thomas said, “We’ve come to the point where if we want to keep Northmont the way it is, we need to ask for a levy again. With these numbers I’ve seen, we’re down to asking the public for $16 — $20,000 a month to keep moving forward to make sure we have the money we need,” Thomas said.

The next regular meeting of the Northmont Board of Education will be at 6 p.m. on Monday, July 17, at Northwood Elementary, 6200 Noranda Drive, Clayton.