Villagers packed the Mills Lawn gym Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 15 and 16, for the Candidates Night community forums, hosted by the James A. McKee Association.

The forums were an opportunity for the candidates running for public office to introduce themselves publicly to the community, answer questions and engage in dialogue with one another ahead of the Nov. 4 General Election.

Voters will choose between six candidates to fill three Village Council seats, two candidates for Yellow Springs mayor and three candidates to fill two Miami Township Trustee seats. Three candidates are running uncontested for the three available seats on the Yellow Springs Board of Education.

Running for mayor are Mark Heise and Steve McQueen; for Council are Brian Housh, Dino Pallotta, Scott Osterholm, Angie Hsu, Stephanie Pearce and Senay Semere; for Trustee are Lori Askeland, Jed Hanna and incumbent Marilan Moir; for school board are Kim Reichelderfer, Kristi Nowack Myers and Paul Herzog.

Oct. 15: Council and mayor

The Council and mayoral candidates kicked off the first of the two Candidates Nights, and while there were some areas of difference in their platforms, there was considerable overlap in their priorities.

Affordable living, an economically healthy downtown, better communication and improved municipal infrastructure were ambitions the six Council candidates raised, albeit from varying angles.

In his opening salvo, Brian Housh — the only incumbent running for reelection — said that increasing the village population may be the solution to several of the municipal woes — namely generating more property taxes and adding more potential customers to struggling shops and stores.

“A little more growth will not only help us with revenues, but also in terms of keeping our downtown vital and supporting our local businesses,” Housh said.

Somewhat in the same vein, Dino Pallotta said in his introductory remarks that a thriving downtown and attracting new industry to the Center for Business and Education were chief among his interests, if elected.

“Growing the business community is the most effective way to increase revenue without raising taxes,” he said, later adding that the Village could leverage its lodging tax to further promote downtown businesses.

There were several other candidates like Pallotta, the owner of Dino’s Cappuccinos, who own or work in downtown Yellow Springs businesses, and see their reported struggles firsthand.

Angie Hsu, who co-owns MAZU, noted that affordable housing and successful downtown Yellow Springs businesses are inextricably linked.

“You are only as good as your staff,” she said. “We need to think creatively so local workers can continue to live in Yellow Springs.”

That idea of both living and working in Yellow Springs came up several times.

“Wages are not living wages for the average rent or house payment in Yellow Springs,” Stephanie Pearce said. “By nurturing local entrepreneurs and existing businesses, we can lift them up and in turn, help them raise their wages. We should be seeking and incentivizing purpose driven industries.”

Senay Semere, whose spouse owns two downtown salons, said his background in economic development gave him the know-how to work with organizations such as the Small Business Association and Small Business Development Centers to bring needed capital to downtown Yellow Springs.

“I have the experience and the relationships to make sure that Yellow Springs gains as much as it gives,” Semere said.

Creating more affordable housing was not only Scott Osterholm’s focus at the forum, but also in recent months in his role as a member of Planning Commission.

“I’m very, very pro-apartment right now,” Osterholm said, later stating that he voted affirmatively this summer for the proposed 96-unit rental complex at the former Antioch College Student Union because he always strives to “do what’s best for the majority.”

“If not there, where? If not now, when?” Osterholm asked rhetorically.

Candidates differed in their opinions on those proposed apartment plans.

“I’m for apartments, but not for that particular project,” Pearce said, calling the potential tax abatements that may be offered to the developer “foolish and irresponsible.”

“We haven’t agreed to any tax abatements yet — they’re still in negotiation,” Housh clarified, and added, “I believe it’s been transparent and these discussions are just beginning.”

Semere and Hsu advocated for better communication between the Village and neighbors of any future project.

“We need apartments. We need housing,” Semere said. “But local issues should go to those who are most affected first. The local community, my neighbors, were not against the development. They just wanted a voice during the process, not at the end of the process.” 

Similarly: “I would be interested in seeing how we can better communicate with residents — especially those most affected — about changes,” Hsu said. “I think there’s been a similar experience with Short Street. People feel they weren’t included in the process and were blindsided.”

At several points, the scope of the discussion on stage broadened to include matters of politics beyond Yellow Springs.

For one, Pallotta addressed recent criticisms of his political affiliations.

“I am a mainstream Republican, and I won’t shy away from that,” he said. “Full disclosure, I have made modest contributions to the party totaling $270 since 2020. More significantly, we have donated over $18,000 to Yellow Springs community programs and organizations during that time.”

Pallotta added: “I do not agree with everything in the party, but I do agree with the core tenet of being fiscally conservative and socially responsible. This philosophy dovetails perfectly with the current financial challenges we’re facing.”

Even the mayoral candidates were challenged to address macro-politics. McQueen and Heise were asked how they would respond if they were informed Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents were in Yellow Springs — both said they would take action.

“I’m not a fan of ICE or anything [the President Trump] administration is doing,” McQueen said. “If given the position of mayor, I’d talk directly to the chief of police as well as police officers to come up with a plan. I’d go directly to the community, find out who would be targeted and be on the front lines.”

“Steve and I agree,” Heise said. “What’s happening in our country is despicable. We have a moral responsibility, as long as it doesn’t cross the law. … We need to protect all our villagers, even those who may not have the right piece of paper.”

While both mayoral candidates were aligned on most issues broached last Wednesday, their approach to advocating for Yellow Springs varied slightly — McQueen said his focus will be on those within the village, and Heise said he will be geared to those beyond the village.

“We need to go out into the state — the larger community — to promote Yellow Springs as a place that’s welcoming to everyone,” Heise said.

By contrast: “It’s time, through events and service … to become neighbors again. We need to become tighter as a community,” McQueen said.

Both mayoral candidates sought to continue the progressive path laid down by outgoing Mayor Pam Conine, especially in Mayor’s Court. Heise said, if elected, he’d expand the court’s hours so as not to inconvenience or force time off work for those summoned. McQueen stressed the importance of adjudicating with social justice in mind.

“You’re not facing a regular system attempting to oppress you,” McQueen said to a hypothetical defendant, “but one that is trying to help you. Knowing you have an ally in leadership is important.”

Similarly, Heise said: “As mayor, I would take a look at the individual and the individual situations of those in marginalized groups — the person themselves — and make sure they get justice. Not retribution, but true justice.”

Oct. 16: Township and school board

Villagers returned to the Mills Lawn gym Thursday, Oct. 16, for the second Candidates Night, this one featuring candidates for Miami Township Trustee and the Yellow Springs Board of Education.

Three are running for two open Township Trustee seats: Lori Askeland and Jed Hanna, and incumbent Marilan Moir. All three spoke to land stewardship and fiscal responsibility.

Askeland, a former Village Council member and longtime Wittenberg University professor, said she’s running because she loves the township’s “beautiful natural preserves and farmlands” and believes good local government is “one of the strongest tools we have to protect what we love — our land, our water, our people.”

“Our first real challenge is basic organizational management — the Township has grown more complex … but its internal systems haven’t really kept pace,” Askeland said. “If something is everybody’s responsibility, it can become nobody’s responsibility until somebody panics and does it, and we can’t have that anymore.”

She said she would bring “steady, transparent, organized and people-centered” leadership to Township government, emphasizing clear budgeting, stronger procedures and “a forward-looking budgeting process that aligns operational spending with long-term capital planning.”

Hanna, a 25-year Miami Township resident, said he would bring a strong rural voice to the board. He described his family’s 150-year-old farm on Cedarville-Yellow Springs Road as where he “learned the value of hard work, community and stewardship of the land.”

“I believe in a rural perspective that honors our agricultural heritage while planning responsibly for the future,” he said. “Public safety is non-negotiable.”

Hanna said, if elected, he would focus on maintaining roads and cemeteries, protecting farmland from annexation and ensuring that fire and EMS have “the resources, staffing and equipment they need to respond quickly and effectively.”

Moir, who is seeking a second term, said the Township is “in the midst of a very transitional time” following a “generational turnover” in staff across multiple departments. She said she hopes to continue stabilizing operations and building on the professionalization of MTFR.

“Despite dramatic headlines, we have a lot of camaraderie and joy in our work at Miami Township,” Moir said. “The improvements we’ve made in the last couple of years is something that I’m very proud of … but we have more work to do.”

Moir said that includes developing a long-term capital plan for vehicles and equipment and improving fiscal oversight.

“We’ve lived with more of a break-fix model,” she said. “That’s not cost-effective, and it’s not worthy of our first responders.”

The three candidates also responded to audience questions, several of which addressed ongoing issues in Township government.

Asked about staffing levels for fire and EMS, Moir said the department has added two full-time staff per shift, creating greater consistency in coverage and teamwork.

“Rather than trying to patch in part-time employees, two firefighters who can predictably work together … every three days become more than the sum of their parts,” she said.

Hanna said: “We just need to have personnel there ready at all times. If somebody makes a phone call, they need to be there instantly.”

Askeland added that Moir was responsible for helping hire consultant Fred Kauser to restructure MTFR’s staffing model, and noted that having well-maintained and up-to-date equipment is “a really important recruitment strategy.”

Responding to an audience question about handling conflict amongst Trustees, Askeland pointed to Robert’s Rules of Order, the standard guidelines for conducting orderly and fair public meetings, which she said she learned in 4-H at a young age.

“If you don’t have a motion on the floor, then you’re not having a discussion,” she said. “It just helps people focus.”

With public meetings in mind, in response to a question about the democratic process, Moir said that clearer procedure and policy are foundational to bringing the broader public into Township work: “You need to go to the root of the problem, which is procedure and policy. As you start to put those in place, you’ll see the symptoms disappear.”

The topic of solar development, particularly the contested Kingwood Solar project, drew strong opinions. Hanna, who was a named intervener in the case, said: “There is a place for solar, but I don’t see the place in Greene County. … I don’t see why you should have 1,500 acres altogether put into solar panels on soil that can raise a beautiful garden or any other kind of crop.”

Moir noted that “large, industrial solar has all but been chased from this county,” but said the Township could still look at smaller-scale systems: “Our zoning commission has decided not to create regulations to allow that, and I hope that over the years they will.”

Questions about Township budgeting prompted detailed responses. Moir said Miami Township operates on a $2.1 million budget, about 75% of which goes to MTFR.

“We just need to plan better,” she said. “We could really tighten up in our fiscal officer’s office — there’s a little bit of guesswork. … We lost a 20-year fiscal officer … and got a new one this year, and it’s been a rocky landing.”

Askeland said she found the Township’s lack of forward-looking budgeting “kind of alarming,” while Hanna said, “A new fire engine will be about a million dollars, if not bought in the next four years. It could be a million and a half by then, [so we need] to budget for that.”

Several questions centered on community engagement and communication. Askeland said she would like to hold work sessions open to the public so trustees can dialogue openly in a “fishbowl-style” setting.

“There’s always a balance … between inviting in as many voices as possible and making sure [meetings are] efficiently run,” she said.

For his part, Hanna said the best way to ensure transparency is “to run a meeting as it should be, without compromise and doing good for our Township.”

The evening also featured the three uncontested school board candidates — Paul Herzog, Kristi Nowack Myers and Kim Reichelderfer — who each said they are committed to maintaining the district’s values and supporting teachers and administrators.

Herzog, a longtime community volunteer, said his priorities include collaboration and communication.

“Positivity, communication, confidence, collaboration, consistency and organization … are all things I pride myself on,” he said.

Myers, a veteran public school English teacher, said she’s running “because public education is the foundation of a healthy democracy.” She expressed concern about “harmful legislation” from the state level, including bills that would defund or politicize public schools.

“We need the state to stop shifting tax dollars to private schools who lack the financial and educational oversight that public schools face,” she said.

Reichelderfer, a mechanical engineer and parent of three Yellow Springs students, said she is focused on seeing the district’s facilities project completed “responsibly, on time and within budget.” She also stressed the need for professional collaboration and a “respectful school board culture.”

“We don’t have to agree on everything,” she said. “In fact, good leadership depends on a diversity of perspectives — but how we communicate matters.”

When asked how they would support district teachers and staff, Reichelderfer said, “They’re our biggest asset.”

Herzog agreed, saying: “Open lines of communication, constant collaboration, listening — making sure that everybody’s needs are met equally.”

Myers added: “We are not superintendents. … We need to listen to and trust our administrators … and trust our teachers. The best gift we can give them is to trust them, respect them, listen to them and work with them.”

As the evening wrapped up, moderator Fred Bartenstein praised the forum’s attendees for maintaining what he called “the most civil audience I’ve ever worked with.”

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4. For more information about local races and ballot issues, see the Yellow Springs News Election Guide, available in print at the News office or online at https://www.ysnews.com.

When the women in the cast of “We Were There” gather on stage in the Foundry Theater’s small experimental space, there’s little spectacle — they’re seated in a line at a long table, and they hold their scripts. But when the actors begin to speak, the room fills with the unquiet echo of war, the weight of memory and the voices of women who lived through both.

The reader’s theater production, adapted by Jane Blakelock, Amy Bennett and Louise Smith, with support from Mad River Theater Works, will be performed Nov. 1 and 2. It draws from two collections of interviews and poetry written by women who served in Vietnam — nurses, Red Cross volunteers, military intelligence officers and others. Each monologue and poem carries the memories, regrets, dreams, hopes and fears of women whose stories aren’t always told.

“These are real people,” cast member Laura Lucas said during a recent rehearsal. “And this is what they [said], in their own words, from their own hearts. … I feel a responsibility sharing that with our audience.”

That sense of responsibility drives the production, noted Blakelock, who said the first seeds of the play’s script were planted years ago, while she was teaching a unit on the Vietnam War; she pointed to a text she used in the class, “A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of Twenty-Six American Women Who Served in Vietnam,” edited by Keith Walker.

“It was a very powerful work that came out within the first 20 years of the end of the war, and … it just spoke to me powerfully then, and it hasn’t lost its resonance,” she said.

Actor Desirée Nickell agreed, saying the play’s emotional reach is personal to her — her father was a Vietnam veteran — and became readily apparent as the cast rehearsed the production at Friends Care Community.

“One gentleman started to cry,” she said. “His three brothers went to Vietnam, and they never spoke to him about it. It was like he was hearing some of these things for the first time. … I hadn’t really realized how intense it was until we did it with that group. It’s touching on a lot of memories for a lot of people.”

Emily Schmidt, who serves as the production’s stage manager alongside assistant stage manager Karla Bristow, said the visual and sound design will deepen the play’s emotional atmosphere, with period music playing throughout; local resident Skip Leeds has produced the sound design for the show. Schmidt said there will also be photographs from the time “revolving on the screen” behind the actors on stage.

For decades, the narrative of Vietnam — in films, literature and even commemorations — has centered almost exclusively on men. “We Were There” aims to pull back history’s lens, widening the view. The women whose voices anchor the script were barred from combat, but they tended to the wounded or were themselves wounded, decoded enemy movements and witnessed the devastation firsthand. Blakelock said she was struck by the clarity and courage of the women whose voices come to life in “We Were There.”

 

 

 

 

 

“They were young women; they were both intelligent and emotionally intelligent,” she said. “So it is a pleasure to take on their voices.”

The silence surrounding women’s experiences moves through and around the play’s narrative. Even as they served, many of the women whose words make up the play were dismissed or patronized; when they returned, they were often ignored entirely. Actor Locksley Harper portrays Doris, a Black intelligence officer, whose foreknowledge and warnings about the incoming Tet Offensive — a massive, coordinated surprise attack by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces — were ignored.

“She was a Black woman who was brilliant, and no one took her seriously … which is true of many Black women,” she said. “We always have to prove ourselves … and then in proving ourselves, we still don’t get the credit much.”

Louise Smith pointed to the temporary removal of the Tuskegee Airmen and other minority armed services members from the Pentagon’s websites earlier this year.

“We can’t even tell the history — so I think it’s really important that Doris’ story is in this piece, because it’s such a major component of what it means to be an American serving in the military,” she said. “It’s complicated. It’s contradictory. It’s complex.”

Blakelock said there’s also often a misconception that no women died while serving in the Vietnam War. Eight American servicewomen, all nurses, died; 59 American civilian women died while working for aid organizations or as correspondents.

Though the play confronts horror directly — the blood, chaos and disbelief of war — and doesn’t shy away from trauma, Bennett said she, Blakelock and Smith worked to create an emotional arc that rises toward light.

“We were really wrestling with, well, where’s the hope?” she said. “To Jane and Louise’s credit, they really made an arc that is, ‘We go in and we probably come out again.’”

Part of that hope, the cast said, lies in the women’s resilience, both during the war and after they returned. Though, as Lucas pointed out, many women weren’t offered much in the way of aid when they came home, they worked to get help for themselves and others.

“One of the hopeful things is at the very end; one of these women retrained as a therapist to be able to help fellow vets … and a number of these women helped one another get therapy,” Lucas said.

The idea of post-war connection was brought even closer to home for the cast when they discovered a personal connection to one of the women whose words are included in the play. Voiced by Flo Lorenz in a recorded segment, the woman in question wrote a letter that was included in the play’s source material.

Cast member Mary Frost-Pierson recognized the woman as someone she had worked with in the American Friends Service Committee in the late ’70s.

“She became a worker for anti-war, and she was in and out of my office,” Frost-Pierson said. “Suddenly, years later, I read the script and I said, ‘I’ve met this woman.’”

For all its historical grounding, “We Were There” speaks urgently to the present. The performers said working on the play has encouraged them to confront not only the past’s injustices, but their ongoing reflections.

“It makes me continue to want to learn more,” Blakelock said. “Their voices … make you think about the war, wars now. … I think of Gaza, and I think of Ukraine and the agony there, and you get a real sense of the uselessness of it.”

“It’s really important to tell the history right now,” Smith added. “It’s an act of resistance to tell the history.”

“We Were There” will be performed Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 1 and 2, at 2 p.m., in the Foundry Theater’s Experimental Space. Donations will be accepted at the door.

When local resident Roi Qualls first envisioned in 2013 a book that explored what it might take — not technologically, but morally — for a future humanity to travel beyond the stars, he had “two big fears.”

“One was that I’m not a writer,” Qualls told the News. “Another was, would the story be interesting enough, and has it already been told?”

The idea lingered for years in the back of Qualls’ mind, taking root until, one night, Qualls called up Hyacinth Wallace, a longtime family friend and aspiring writer. 

“He told me the idea for the book, and asked if I would be interested in helping him to write it,” Wallace said. “And I thought, ‘That sounds like a really cool idea.’”

What followed was two and a half years of collaboration across time zones and temperaments — an effort that became “Interwoven,” a speculative fiction debut that’s as much a warning as it is a question. Qualls and Wallace will discuss the novel Sunday, Oct. 19, 3–5 p.m., at the Emporium.

Set in 2275, “Interwoven” follows Chief Scientist Dr. Tah Morant, conflicted creator of the Deuteron engine, slated to be used in humanity’s last desperate mission off a dying Earth. After centuries of conflict, resource exhaustion and ecological collapse, humankind looks to the stars for salvation. But as the Umoja-19 mission reaches beyond familiar space, something intervenes. Morant must confront greed and division to ask: Can Earth prove itself worthy of joining a larger galactic community?

“The irony is the proposition that other beings in the galaxy would just love for the human race to move out there,” Qualls said. “If I lived out there, would I want humans moving next door? Given what we’re doing today, heck no.”

That skepticism is central to the novel’s premise, in which humanity is effectively quarantined on Earth until it can prove itself capable of moral evolution.

“It was the essential narrative point that Hyacinth and I talked about,” Qualls said.

In fact, Qualls’ original working title for the novel was “Quarantined” — but it was lost to the pandemic.

“That one got stolen,” he said with a laugh.

For Wallace, the challenge wasn’t just the story’s scope; it was figuring out how to share authorship without losing cohesion — particularly as the former Yellow Springs resident now lives in Washington state.

“It was a challenge — we live in different time zones,” she said. “You’re imagining something, and now you’ve got to imagine it with two brains.”

To help merge their approaches, the two brought in writing coach Kim Douglas, who guided them through developing plot and character while learning to integrate two distinct creative visions.

“She gave us a lot of literary tools to do that,” Wallace said. “It was a wonderful help … [in] developing a relationship as writers who have so much difference and distance.”

By the time the authors hit their stride, the process had grown “very intense, collaborative and consultative,” Wallace said. That work resulted in a novel that works to balance the personal and the political.

“Interwoven” is grounded in the perspective of protagonist Tah, whose personal trauma — hinted at in the book’s first pages, and fully explored throughout its length — tinges every choice he makes, whether it involves his work with the Galaxy Exploration Mission or his relationships with his wife and daughter. The novel aims to reveal a character motivated by fear and loss — as so many people are — and connect that characterization to the wider context of the capitalist future world Wallace and Qualls have built.

“Fear and grief — those are states in which you can be manipulated,” Wallace said. “You can be exploited to use your talents in a way that doesn’t actually serve you.”

Like any good science fiction work, the worldbuilding of “Interwoven” grows from imagining how the world will develop centuries down the line if it continues on its current course. Longstanding and current sci-fi anxieties, such as an increasing reliance on technology, are explored, with Wallace imagining and coining much of the novel’s tech vocabulary: haum, the ultimate automated home; rellow, the uber-smartwatch; viztra, the never-ending visual stream.

“Everything would be a stream — the information stream, the news stream,” Wallace said. “You can never escape.”

The idea of being trapped by one’s own inventions, and that the things meant to save us can reveal what still needs saving within us, is an ongoing theme of the novel. Still, “Interwoven” isn’t a dirge. Wallace and Qualls both see the book’s themes as a kind of global challenge — a mirror held up to what’s possible if we decide to change.

“To really advance towards a better world — towards peace and tranquility and stability — requires huge developments, both at the individual level, and also huge systemic and systematic changes,” Qualls said. “Both are required.”

A close reading of “Interwoven,” he added, reveals the writers’ view of humanity’s best next steps, nestled at the novel’s heart: “Being the best people we can and doing the best work we can to find collective solutions, and not being afraid of real, fundamental change in systems and institutions.”

The novel’s full title is “Points of Failure Vol. 1: Interwoven,” signaling that Qualls and Wallace have more stories waiting to be told. Qualls confirmed that a second book is already outlined, and that ultimately the two authors aim to write a series of works centered on the world they’ve created and the themes they’ve explored.

“We know what the second book is about — and there are lots of stories beyond just the ‘Points of Failure’ series that we’ve envisioned,” Qualls said.

“Points of Failure Vol. 1: Interwoven” is available at Tesseract Books, and online through http://www.bookshop.org, which allows patrons to choose an independent book store through which to purchase.

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.

 

When the foot-stomping starts at the Foundry Theater next weekend, it won’t be just another weekend of concerts. Trad Romp Wknd, set for Oct. 24–26, is shaping up to be a full-bodied celebration of traditional music, movement and community.

The weekend, co-presented by Mad River Theater Works and The Big Family Business, will gather a lineup of performers whose lives and art have long intertwined, alongside the wider community, which is invited to play its own part in creating art and fellowship.

The weekend opens Friday with performances by banjo player, songwriter and dancer Evie Ladin, a onetime member of the locally legendary Rhythm in Shoes; Good & Young — that is, Rhythm in Shoes founders Rick Good and Sharon Leahy with daughter and son-in-law Emma and Linzay Young; and Bob Lucas and the Hedgehog String Band, followed by an open old-time jam for anyone who wants to join in.

Saturday will feature workshops in music and movement, then an evening square dance with The Corndrinkers. On Sunday, indie-roots band The Mammals, led by Mike Merenda and Ruth Ungar of New York’s Hudson Valley, will take the stage.

Foundry Director and Mad River Theater Works Director Chris Westhoff said Trad Romp Wknd is a “good distillation” of what he’s been building through the theater’s programming — a focus on traditional art forms through both performance and participation.

“These are things that bring us and hold us together,” he said. “So if we can preserve them, maybe we can come together.”

The lineup, Westhoff said, assembled organically. Ladin reached out about performing; he and Leahy were already talking about a weekend of concerts, workshops and dance. With Ladin and The Mammals — whose members are longtime friends of Good, Leahy and Ladin — the event found its rhythm.

Saturday’s workshops will be part demonstrative, part participatory. Fiddle and banjo workshops will showcase Cajun, Appalachian, old-time and honky-tonk styles with fiddlers Barb Kuhns, Linda Scutt, Linzay Young and Bob Lucas, and banjo players Good, Lucas, Tom Duffee and Geoff Hohwald.

Ladin will lead body music and rhythm training, and present educational workshops at Mills Lawn and the Antioch School. Good, Westhoff and Duffee will lead a session on protest songs that “speak truth to power.”

Leahy will lead a clogging basics class open to “anyone who likes to dance,” and, with Good and Emma Young, teach three-part country harmonies.

“[These events] are participatory and they don’t fall into the predictable capitalistic modality of consumption,” Westhoff said.

To that end, Leahy said, the weekend’s deeper goal is to build real-world connections through shared artistic experience — particularly post-pandemic, as “people have gotten out of the habit of being with other people.”

“I think that’s part of our problem right now — we don’t have real-life experiences with each other,” she said. “That’s really why we wanted to pull this whole thing together and say, ‘Hey, let’s spend the weekend together.’”

And gathering together in community — differences and all — is rooted in the same cultural mix that birthed the traditions being celebrated. For example, Leahy said, clogging grew out of European, African-American and Native American folk dances in the Appalachian Mountains in the 19th century.

“The banjo came from Africa, the fiddle came from the Scots-Irish and the downbeat in dancing is definitely Native American,” she said. “These are a mix of peoples who brought their traditions and lived side-by-side. So it’s looking at how we can all come together and create something really beautiful.”

Though Trad Romp Wknd wraps up after three days, similar programming, based around both community participation and Americana arts, will continue beyond next weekend at the Foundry.

For starters, beginning Tuesday, Nov. 11, Leahy will lead a four-week clogging basics class, with Good providing live old-time music, at the Foundry. Looking ahead to March, plans are being made for more classes in traditional dance forms, tied to a social dance open to the community.

For Westhoff, the debut weekend offers a blueprint for what the Trad Romp could become.

“[This event] is very humble and modest, but you have to start somewhere,” he said. “Could we develop this idea with a shared network of really rad, talented people who want to be around Yellow Springs, and have some kind of annual gathering in traditional music, where you could learn stuff and do more than just attend a concert?”

Individual-day tickets for Trad Romp Wknd are $20 for Friday’s events, $20 for Saturday’s events, and $25 for The Mammals’ performance on Sunday; admission is $5 for students. All-weekend passes are also available — $55 for individuals, and $115 for families.

For more information on Trad Romp Wknd, or to buy tickets, go to http://www.bit.ly/TradRompWknd25. For more information on continuing clogging basics classes with Sharon Leahy beginning Nov. 11, email sharonleahy373@gmail.com.

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