solutions exist to address budget challenges. During the last two biennium budget periods we have
worked closely with the Buckeye Association of School Administrators (BASA), the Ohio Association
of School Business Officials (OASBO) and The Alliance for High Quality Education to advocate for
policy that supports public schools. Our district became particularly immersed with BASA, the Alliance
for High Quality Education, our Ohio Representative and Senator last biennium to propose a cap
solution to the Governor’s proposed budget cuts that more equitably addressed the budget shortfall.
While significant cuts were still made, our district went from an originally proposed cut of 76% in state
funding to an amount less than 25%. I have advocated at the national level through participation in
professional surveys and involvement in AASA, but admittedly the bulk of my time has been spent on
keeping our district focused and participating heavily at the local and state levels.
We work to provide excellent schools at an exceptional value. To do this it is imperative that all in
Westlake understand and support our mission. Taking action in response to things like budget cuts
doesn’t start when the cuts happen. Action actually begins by involving the community in the
development of our Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) which defines our purpose, values, beliefs,
mission and vision. When considering action to respond to resource challenges, the critical decisions
necessary must align with the purpose of the school district and the values of the community. We have
found that because of our CIP process community stakeholders are more personally connected with
decisions of the district due to their high involvement in the development of district goals and priorities.
Last biennium we made approximately $4.2 million in reductions over a two year period to account for
state budget cuts. During that time we also managed to add world language at the elementary school
level and pre-engineering classes at the middle school level. Additionally, all four elementary buildings
began the process of earning accreditation as International Baccalaureate (IB) World Schools. To
accomplish these things at a time of declining revenue we visited our budget challenges along with our
CIP commitments publically at Board meetings and special meetings and developed a plan to make cuts
and provide outside revenue to best stay on course with our mission during these troubled times.
Changes in class sizes, combining sections of level 5 and AP classes and elimination of electives
considered less of a priority are examples of some of the collective sacrifices agreed to in order to help.
Clearly, adjustments of that magnitude could not have been made without understanding our priorities
through community involvement and thinking innovatively. Through the process of working publically
to address our challenges, opportunities emerged and we were able to better utilize all of our community
resources in the form of significant partnerships, grants, consortiums, shared services, advertising, and
the use of community volunteers.
Perhaps our best example of a successful innovative action in response to budget cuts has been our effort
to continue moving forward to provide our students an opportunity to earn an International
Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma at Westlake High School. Our CIP identified the need for our students to be
Internationally Competitive, Capable, Engaged and Experienced as a priority, so it determined the
importance that we continue to work to make this happen despite major budget reductions. Several non-
traditional measures were taken to accomplish this goal that we consider innovative. After learning of
the cuts at the state level and realizing we would not have the funds to continue our pursuit as planned,
we called a meeting with a number of other school districts who expressed similar interests in pursuing
the IB Diploma Programme. From that meeting three other districts agreed to partner with us to form a
consortium so that students from all four high schools could earn the IB diploma. This partnership
allowed the cost to be divided evenly between the four districts. We then sought assistance from
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