WEST CHESTER TWP. — The Lakota schools won't see a windfall from this year's reappraisal of property in Butler County, despite an average increase of 15 percent in property value.

        Treasurer Alan Hutchinson said the schools would

        receive about $1.6 million more next year when taxes are collected on the new appraisals, or about 1.5 percent of the general fund.

        “The tax rate is reduced, so we don't collect more money than voters approved,” Mr. Hutchinson said.

        Further complicating the funding issue is the formula the Ohio Department of Education uses when determining how much state aid schools receive each year, Mr. Hutchinson said. It is based on enrollment, the tax base and other factors.

        “I think there's a real misunderstanding that if my home goes up 20 percent, my taxes go up 20 percent,” said Lakota board member Jeff Jones.

        Lakota Schools received $107.5 million for the 2001-02 school year. Mr. Hutchinson estimated the district would receive $111.8 million this year and about $116.6 million next year.

        Those amounts, he said, probably would have been more if not for reappraisals and a growing student enrollment.

        Last year, the district had 15,518 students at the October countsaid school spokesman Jon Weidlich.

        It now has 15,860 students as of Sept. 13, an increase of 342, he said.

        The funding formula has “been a problem in the state for years,” board member Joan Powell said.

        “They constantly make the funding more difficult as they adjust it. They need to (wipe) the slate clean” and start over, she said.

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