School district urges state reps against overriding vetoes
- Published: August 8, 2025
At their regular meeting Thursday, July 10, the members of the YS school board agreed to pen a collaborative statement to state representatives urging them to belay overriding Gov. Mike DeWine’s recent vetoes of state budget items affecting schools.
As the News reported earlier this month, DeWine struck from the two-year budget several education-related provisions, including a 40% cap on excess end-of-year operating funds; limitations on placing emergency levies on the ballot or renewing levies at increased millage; the power for county budget commissions to reduce the millage of voter-approved school levies; and a reconfiguration of how levies are factored into local tax rates with regard to school funding.
The Legislature could still override the governor’s vetoes, however, by a three-fifths majority vote — 60 from the House and 20 from the Senate.
Though the Senate has not yet announced plans to return to session, the House is slated to return to session July 21. According to the Statehouse News Bureau, the House will address three of the above school-related provisions Gov. DeWine vetoed, excluding the 40% operating fund cap.
District Treasurer Jacob McGrath pointed out during the regular meeting that, even excluding the operating savings cap from overrides, reinstituting the provisions initially struck from the budget bill would affect the way YS Schools and other Ohio school districts calculate their expected revenue.
“We’ve done our best to educate the community of what we were doing when we asked for levies in the past, and this is just sort of going behind and changing the rules after the fact,” he said, later adding that the district has not asked for additional levy funding specifically for operations since 2012.
“If those [provisions] were overridden, it could change that,” board member Dorothée Bouquet said, “when earlier this year, we learned that we could stretch our operating funds another 10 years.”
“This is changing the rules,” school board President Rebecca Potter reiterated. “I hope that our legislators respect that and listen to this statement.”
Swimming lessons for second graders
The board signed a memorandum of understanding with the Xenia YMCA ahead of establishing a swimming lessons program for Mills Lawn second-graders.
Potter said board member Judith Hempfling has been working in collaboration with Assistant Superintendent Megan Winston (formerly Mills Lawn’s principal) to establish the program, which will be similar to an extant program in Fairborn schools.
According to the MOU, the four-week program will consist of once-weekly, 45-minute lessons, intended to teach water safety and swimming competency. Lessons will include how to wear a life jacket and boat safety, in addition to evaluating students’ swim skills and giving swim instruction based on current YMCA swim curriculum in skill-level groups.
The program will be administered by the Xenia YMCA and will be offered at no cost to Mills Lawn second-graders. With the MOU signed, Mills Lawn now moves ahead to plan and schedule the implementation of the program, for which the district will provide transportation to the Xenia YMCA.
“I’m sure families will have questions, and the Mills Lawn administration will be providing that information,” Potter said.
School supplies, TI-84 exchange
Mills Lawn PTO member Kristi Myers reminded those present about the organization’s annual school supply drive, which is currently ongoing; as the News reported last month, the supply drive typically helps fund the purchase of school supplies for several dozen Mills Lawn students. This year, the drive will also support 10 middle and high school students.
Also new this year is an option for Mills Lawn families to participate in bulk-ordering of supplies at a discounted rate. The deadline for bulk ordering is Aug. 1; go to millslawnpto.com or find the PTO on Facebook for more information.
Myers also announced that the PTO is organizing a TI-84 graphing calculator drive for rising high schoolers, for whom the item is a required supply; those with the specified model of graphing calculators who no longer need them are encouraged to drop them off at the YS Community Library.
TI-84 calculators typically cost about $100, which Myers noted could be a prohibitive cost for some families.
“Once students finish high school, a lot of times they don’t use [the calculators] anymore,” Myers said. “So if you have a TI-84 laying around, bring it to the library so we can give it to a student who needs it.”
Facilities update
Local residents will have already noticed that walls have gone up for the new gymnasium at the East Enon Road campus of McKinney and YS High schools; the past month has also seen the pouring of foundations for the new “Y” wings that will separately house grades 5–8 and 9–12, as well as the schools’ new band room and offices.
At Mills Lawn, extended periods of rain this summer have created some delays; as the News reported in May, while the school’s new main office is being constructed, office operations have been moved to the school’s current music room, with entry into the school now through the double doors adjacent to the school’s gym. Initially, the new main office section of the building was expected to be completed by Labor Day, but due to the rain delays, completion of the main office is now expected by the district’s fall break in November.
Treasurer McGrath reminded those present that, as part of the planning for construction, the facilities upgrades project includes about $2 million for unexpected cost contingencies. He noted that Conger Construction, the firm overseeing the building of the project, is currently preparing a report on the percentage of the contingency fund that has been used up to now, but that no major unforeseen costs have arisen thus far.
“I don’t think we’ve had anything outside of the $20,000 range in total,” McGrath said.
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