Lakota Re-Enrolls in State Funding Program for Facilities Plan

At its April 22 board meeting, the Lakota Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution to re-enroll the district in Ohio’s Expedited Local Partnership Program (ELPP). Hosted by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC), enrollment is required to gain the OFCC’s support and partnership in ultimately building a master facilities plan that, when approved by the commission, will be financed in part by the State. The first time the district enrolled in the program was in 2019, just before the facilities planning was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think we all recognize the need to address our facilities’ needs given, right now, some of our learning needs are being challenged by class sizes but we just don’t have…the space to put (new classrooms),” said Board President Julie Shaffer. “I think we all recognize that not only is this a facilities need, but it’s impacting what we’re able to do from an educational basis as well.” 

What is ELPP?

The State ranks Ohio’s 609 school districts in order from least wealthy to wealthiest based on the valuation per student. Lakota is currently ranked 419. In comparison, the district was ranked 476 in 2018. The State uses this ranking to determine the funding percentage a district can receive through ELPP. Last year, Lakota was eligible to receive 29 percent reimbursement. Now, with our latest ranking, that amount has increased to 31 percent. 

In order to receive the funding, the Board must pass a resolution to join ELPP. Based on the OFCC’s evaluation of Lakota’s buildings against future building standards, OFCC funds could only be applied to the renovation of schools that are in satisfactory condition and replacement of those determined to be deficient in relation to its current building standards. 

Current Plan Draft

At the meeting, Chief Operations Officer Chris Passarge made a presentation to the Board recapping the current working plan and what the next steps could look like. In May 2023, the Board approved the following grade band configuration:

• Preschool
• Kindergarten - fifth grade
• Sixth - eighth grade
• Ninth - twelfth grade

Possible building configurations include:

• Liberty Early Childhood School (ECS) becoming a standalone preschool;
• The K-5 buildings would include:
  • Cherokee Elementary
  • Endeavor Elementary
  • Independence Elementary
  • Ridge Junior
  • Union Elementary
  • VanGorden Elementary
  • Wyandot ECS
  • Four new K-5 schools would be built, locations to be determined
• The 6-8 middle schools would include:
  • East Freshman
  • Plains Junior
    • Both schools would have additions built on them.
• The 9-12 high schools would include:
  • Lakota East main campus
  • Lakota West main campus
    • Both schools would have additions built on them.

Possible decommissioned buildings include:

• Adena Elementary
• Creekside ECS
• Freedom Elementary
• Heritage ECS
• Hopewell ECS
• Hopewell Junior
• Liberty Junior
• Shawnee ECS
• West Freshman 
• Woodland Elementary

Next Steps

While there are many unknowns that must be addressed, including funding options, Passarge told the Board that the first step in moving forward with a master facilities plan would be to partner with the State through ELPP. “If we do pass a resolution (to participate in ELPP), there are a lot of benefits (to Lakota),” said Passarge. This includes:

• An OFCC-funded enrollment study which would be required in order to receive state funding because everything in an OFCC-approved master facilities plan is based on enrollment, including the square footage of schools. The Board had previously asked Passarge to commission an enrollment study, which has already begun. Once both studies have been completed, Passarge and his team will compare them and meet with the OFCC to discuss any discrepancies and ask questions they may have.
  
  The last time an enrollment study was done in Lakota was in 2019. Current enrollment has already outpaced this 10-year study by about 500 students.
   
• An updated building assessment to determine the efficiency of our schools. When this was done in 2019, 10 schools were determined to be “deficient,” which means it is more cost effective to build new schools than to renovate them in order to bring them up to the standards the OFCC sets for new buildings. This does not mean that any Lakota school is currently unsafe or unfit and not being maintained properly by the district. With a new assessment, the OFCC will take into consideration any upgrades and work that has been done on Lakota’s schools to update the ratings.
  
  Similar to the new enrollment study, once Passarge receives the new assessment, he and his team will review it, making sure that any completed work has been accounted for and discussing any questions that arise. 

“Once you agree on the enrollment and the assessments, (the OFCC) will start to generate master plan options based on the current grade configuration we want to look at, or others that may come up through community conversations,” explained Passarge. While the district has engaged the community throughout the process, more engagement will be needed as the Board gets closer to determining what the timeline for implementing the master facilities plan will look like. 

Benefits to Passing the ELPP Resolution

Passarge reiterated that approving the resolution to join ELPP does not lock the district into anything. While the resolution includes November 2025 for a potential bond issue to be voted on by the community, Lakota would not be held to that date. This simply shows the OFCC that the district is serious about moving forward with the partnership. Furthermore, it will give Passarge and the facilities committee data at no charge to the district and a starting point to build out an efficient timeline for the work to be done in building the final plan. 

The Board’s move to approve the resolution simply places Lakota on a waiting list, among other Ohio districts. Lakota will earn financial credit for any completed work from this point forward that is part of the approved master facilities plan. Once it is Lakota’s turn to collect, the state will reimburse a portion of the facility dollars spent by the district.

An example of this work would be replacing the roofs on Wyandot and Endeavor. This is work that the district would need to do regardless of when construction outlined in the master plan might take place and would pay for out of its existing permanent improvement fund. Because it is work that is being done on two schools the OFCC rated as being in satisfactory or good condition, the funds would be applied to the partial reimbursement account. 

Next Steps

With the unanimous approval of the ELPP resolution, Passarge will begin working with the OFCC to schedule the enrollment study and building assessments, as well as preparing a timeline for next steps.