At the most recent school board meeting, lifelong Bulldog, educator and mentor to many John Gudgel was recognized for his 45 years in the district. Pictured above, from left: Board members Amy Bailey and Amy Magnus, Assistant Superintendent Megan Winston, Gudgel, Superintendent Terri Holden, and board members Rebecca Potter, Dorothée Bouquet and Judith Hempfling. (Photo courtesy of YS Schools)
John Gudgel honored for 45 years in YS Schools
- Published: October 25, 2025
Teacher. Counselor. Principal. Mentor. Historian. Confidant. Friend.
These were the words Superintendent Terri Holden used to describe John Gudgel, who was recognized for 45 years of service to YS Schools at the most recent meeting of the school board on Thursday, Oct. 9.
“There’s dedication, and there’s dedication,” Holden said of Gudgel, who graduated from YS High School in 1975 and came back as a substitute teacher in 1979.
In 1980, Gudgel was hired as a social studies teacher and track coach at McKinney Middle School. In 1994, he took over as the school’s guidance counselor, but stepped up to fill in as principal of McKinney and YS High School the following year when the previous principal suddenly retired. After serving as interim principal for a year, Gudgel applied for the permanent position, and served in the role until retiring in May of 2010.
That retirement, of course, was temporary, and in August of 2010, Gudgel was back in the schools, serving as a counselor at Mills Lawn. He’s now a counselor for both campuses, and continues to coach cross-country and track.
Through the years, students, co-workers and the wider community have noted Gudgel’s warmth and kindness as an educator; the late, longtime local educator Joyce McCurdy told the News in 2010 that Gudgel has long been “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”
Holden shared similar sentiments Thursday night, saying that Gudgel had “opened his arms” to her when she first came to the school district.
“He has done nothing but embrace me with love my entire seven years here,” Holden said.
Assistant Superintendent Megan Winston agreed, calling Gudgel “a household name” whose influence has rippled across generations.
“If you do the math,” she said, “that’s long enough for him to have taught a student in his very first year, then that student’s child, then that first student’s grandchild — and he might even make it to a great-grandchild.”
Winston shared a personal story of her own family’s connection to Gudgel, describing how he quietly intervened years ago to help her sister find a place in Yellow Springs Schools when other doors had closed.
“That’s the power of John Gudgel — to see what’s possible when others can’t, to open doors quietly but meaningfully, and to leave generations of students and families better because of his heart,” she said.
In past reporting, Gudgel summed up his approach to education simply: “Kids want to be listened to, acknowledged, to feel like someone cares,” he said.
State moves affect budget forecast
Near the end of the meeting, the school board turned its attention to long-term finances, reviewing the district’s now four-year financial forecast and the shifting state landscape affecting local revenues.
District Treasurer Jacob McGrath led the presentation, noting that recent legislative changes under Ohio House Bill 96 shortened the required forecast window from five years to four. The measure, part of the state’s biennium budget bill passed earlier this year, was one of several alterations to school funding law.
“I’m not exactly sure why,” McGrath said of the reporting change. “I think part of that was the [proposed] carryover balance and some of the stuff that is still hanging in limbo at the state.”
That “limbo,” McGrath said, extends to a wave of veto overrides by state lawmakers. In recent weeks, the Ohio General Assembly has overridden several of Gov. Mike DeWine’s vetoes of provisions that affect how school districts can raise local revenue — specifically, by eliminating some types of property tax levies schools have historically used to balance their budgets.
McGrath said one such override “does not have an immediate impact” on the district, which currently has no levies planned in its forecast, but “does hinder our future funding options.” The change, he added, leaves districts with fewer tools to maintain financial stability.
“So instead of having a tool belt with five or six tools to fund your schools, now we’re pretty much limited to traditional levies, which is a flat dollar amount,” McGrath said, adding that Gov. DeWine’s tax reform work group, as well as the state Legislature, could still make changes to the way local property taxes are levied and calculated.
In recent months, state lawmakers in the House and Senate have intimated the possibility of changing the way the “20-mill floor” is calculated. As the News has reported in the past, the 20-mill floor ensures a minimum effective property tax rate of 20 mills for a school district. Effective tax rates usually lower as property values increase; the floor ensures that tax rates won’t drop below 20 mills, allowing property taxes to effectively increase along with property values. Lawmakers could potentially override Gov. DeWine’s veto on changing the formula, and could possibly place a cap on property tax growth with regard to the 20-mill floor. The governor’s work group has floated the possibility of calculating existing fixed-sum levies into the 20-mill floor calculation; these types of levies have thus far been excluded from the calculation.
The governor’s work group has also discussed the possibility of giving county budget commissions authority to reduce the millage of levies passed by voters.
“It’s very difficult to predict and budget right now,” McGrath said at Thursday’s meeting.
According to McGrath’s forecast — which spanned five years, despite the new requirement — the district is expected to retain a positive cash balance into 2030; a 10-year projection, included with the forecast, showed a deficit in 2032 — two years sooner than was projected in May this year ahead of the passage of HB 96. The shift, McGrath said, reflects the compounding effects of reduced state funding.
He also nodded to a statewide group seeking to eliminate property taxes with a constitutional amendment on next year’s November ballot, noting that local revenues make up 76% of the district’s budget; more than 50% of those revenues come from property taxes.
“So what happens to our district if 50% of our revenues disappear overnight? You have to find a new way of funding,” McGrath said.
Board President Rebecca Potter said the revised forecast should be front-of-mind for both current and incoming school board members.
“In May, we did … have some confidence, especially after the passing of the last levy, that we would not need to go to voters for a good eight to 10 years,” she said. “And that has changed dramatically.”
“It’s really unfair to us, because we propose tax levies, we are up-front with the community … and make our decisions based on the laws as they are,” McGrath added. “So when the laws are changing to negatively impact us — when the state’s taking away our funding and giving more funding to private schools and looking at changing our local tax laws — these are things that really take away the voices of our voters.”
Superintendent Holden added that the district intends to be “proactive rather than reactive” in anticipating cuts, aiming to, if necessary, reduce expenses in a way that has “the least amount of impact on our operations, our students, our teachers and our community.”
McGrath summed up the district’s financial reality bluntly: “This is probably the most optimistic forecast I will have for some time, unless there are some changes in the way that the state is looking at laws,” he said. “Because right now … we have threats to our federal funding, our state funding and our local funding.”
In other school board business—
• The board voted unanimously to change the name of the East Enon Road campus from McKinney Middle and Yellow Springs High School to Yellow Springs Middle and High School. As the News reported last month, the name change comes as the campus is under construction to become a fifth- through 12th-grade campus, with grades 5–8 and 9–12 in separate wings. The middle and high schools already carry a single state identification number with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. After the resolution was passed, Holden noted that former Superintendent Ed McKinney, for whom the middle school was formerly named, would be honored elsewhere in the building.
• The board presented new drone camera footage detailing the progress of construction at both Mills Lawn and Yellow Springs Middle and High School. The drone footage is available for viewing by the general public at www.
photo courtesy of yellow springs schools
At the most recent school board meeting, lifelong Bulldog, educator and mentor to many John Gudgel was recognized for his 45 years in the district. Pictured above, from left: Board members Amy Bailey and Amy Magnus, Assistant Superintendent Megan Winston, Gudgel, Superintendent Terri Holden, and board members Rebecca Potter, Dorothée Bouquet and Judith Hempfling.
ysschools.org/construction.
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