Loveland City Schools Newsletter

Loveland Tiger Community,

Loveland City Schools will be on the ballot with a 4.9 mill levy on May 2, 2023. The Board of Education voted to place this funding request before voters during their last meeting, and you can watch the meeting by following this link to our YouTube page. This levy would cost about $14 per month, or $172 per year, for every $100,000 of the county auditor’s appraised home value.

This operating levy would allow us to maintain district operations, preserving programs, staffing levels, and classroom sizes. Without additional funding approved by voters this year, the district would need to identify and begin making extensive cuts to avoid falling into fiscal distress as defined by the State of Ohio. During our January 10 Board Meeting, a representative from the Ohio Auditor of State discussed this process, and you can watch his presentation here.

4.9 mills is the same amount requested by the district in November 2022, but this levy will not accomplish the same things. The November 2022 levy would have provided money beginning this year. If the May levy is approved by voters, money would not arrive until next year. That difference means we won’t have funding to restore high school bus service or add staff positions - the funds will be used to maintain the services we have now.

District finances are at a critical point. Students lost class offerings and high school transportation in 2020 to help reduce our costs. Teachers and staff members have made concessions on their salaries to help reduce our costs. We have changed our hiring processes to reduce our costs. All that has helped, but with funding that is essentially flat, we are again at a point where we need to increase funding or consider cuts.

98% of Ohio school districts have a lower student-to-teacher ratio than Loveland City Schools, which means additional cuts in the classroom would put our district at the very bottom of the entire state. Our district just received five stars on our Ohio school report card. I don’t believe our students will see the same results through another round of cuts.

The Board took this action after two Town Hall meetings where there was an open conversation about district finances. You can watch the January 5 Town Hall by following this link and the January 23 Town Hall by following this link. Both provided a great opportunity for people to ask questions and get answers, and I appreciate everyone who participated in the great, constructive discussions.

We will be providing information on our website soon to help answer questions for our community. I invite everyone to learn all you can about the district’s efforts to manage expenses while preserving excellent learning opportunities for our students. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to send me an email at: broadwmi@lovelandschools.org.

Please consider sharing this newsletter with your friends and neighbors, and encourage them to sign-up, so they receive our updates as well: www.lovelandschools.org/getinvolved

Go Tigers!

Mike Broadwater

Superintendent

Loveland City Schools

Congratulations to Luke Waddell and Jeff Williams, the newest members of the Loveland High School Sports Hall of Fame. Luke Wadell was a three-sport stand-out in football, basketball, and baseball. He racked up awards and records in football, including career touchdowns, and played on the 2013 undefeated state championship team. Luke played three years of varsity basketball, earning conference awards. In Baseball, he was a regional and national standout and played baseball at Georgia Tech before being drafted by the Atlanta Braves organization. Jeff Williams served as the president of the Loveland Athletic Boosters for 15 years, where he built great traditions and raised $500,000 for the first turf field, $750,000 for a weight room, and transformed the LHS Friday Night Football experience. Congratulations to both 2022 inductees, and thank you for being important parts of our Loveland school community.

The Loveland City Schools Business Advisory Council recently received a 2023 Business-Education Leader Award for Excellent Business Advisory Councils. Our Business Advisory Council is a partnership between Loveland City Schools and local businesses. It allows business leaders to talk directly with us about the skills our students need to be career ready. Loveland City School District received a two-star Business Advisory Council Award and was one of only 26 school districts across the state to receive recognition. Learn more about the award by following this link. You can also learn more about our Business Advisory Council and how to get involved by following this link.

Congratulations to the talented artists at Loveland High School who recently received recognition in the Scholastic Art Awards. The nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, the Scholastic Art and Writing Award recognizes students with exceptional artistic and literary talent.

• Piper Schaeffer received a Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention for Drawing & Illustration.

• Josef Hallquist received THREE Gold Key Awards, a Silver Key, and an Honorable Mention for Photography.

• Santiago Medellin received a Gold Key & an Honorable Mention in Digital Art and a Silver Key for Photography.

• Zachary Peebles received Gold Key, Two Silver Keys, and an Honorable Mention for Design.

• Srinivas Sankaranarayanan received a Silver Key for Photography and an Honorable Mention for Digital Art.

Their art will be on display at the Art Academy of Cincinnati from February 6th to the 17th. Gallery hours are 9 am-9 pm. Congratulations to these talented students! Check out all the student award winners by following this link to a slideshow.

One of our LES 4th graders, Lyla Smith, started an effort to send cards and messages to Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin after his medical emergency during the Bengals game. Classmates at LES created awesome get-well cards. Students and community members were also invited our community to sign a giant banner. Thank you to Lyla for showing amazing compassion and taking leadership on this project, and thank you to everyone sending love from Loveland to Buffalo!

In case you missed the news last summer, we want to remind you that Loveland High School is the Cincinnati area’s first “Heart Safe School.” This designation means we have met the protocol set forth by Project Adam for training and response to cardiac events in the school to save lives. Thank you to our health team for working with Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center to take this vital step for the safety of our community. Learn more about Project Adam by following this link.

State Representative Jean Schmidt, who represents the 62nd Ohio House District, visited Loveland Intermediate School in January. The meeting was a great opportunity for Superintendent Mike Broadwater to have a discussion about working with state lawmakers on funding and other important issues. Thank you, Rep. Schmidt!

Loveland High School students are working again on the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Student of the Year campaign - raising money and awareness for blood cancers. Emma Steiner, Marcel Mangan, and Orhan Ozbudak are leading Team CoUREage 4.0, and they have set a goal to raise $100,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by March 25, 2023. You can support Team CoUREage 4.0 in several ways

• Follow this link to donate

• Follow this link to purchase a t-shirt

• Follow this link to Fundraising Events

• Follow their progress on Twitter: @teamcoureage4

• Or on Instagram: @lovelandteamcoureage4.0

If you’re interested in supporting them with a corporate sponsorship, they’d love to hear from you. Thank you to this awesome team of students for carrying on this tradition of community involvement and giving back to a great cause!

The Loveland High School Student Athletic Leadership Team (SALT) is launching the Relay for Life in support of the American Cancer Society. Students who would like to get involved can sign-up to form fundraising teams. Follow this link to support our students in this effort. The Relay for Life will be taking place on May 5, 2023.

Our Loveland High School Orchestras will have a unique opportunity on Monday, February 6, when they perform alongside Grammy-nominated violinist Jeremy Kittel. Kittel will run workshops with our musicians at Loveland High School, then our students will perform alongside his band Kittel and Co. You can purchase tickets for this performance by following this link.

Email: setteran@lovelandschools.org
Website: www.lovelandschools.org
Location: 757 S Lebanon Rd, Loveland, OH, USA
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lovelandcityschools/
Twitter: @LovelandTigers