Mentor Schools Chief Financial Officer, Bill Wade, just released important financial information regarding the previous school year (July 2023 – June 2024). In his release he covered three main topic areas: tax rates, property taxes, and how the money was spent. The article is very complex so let’s break down some of the most relevant points.

Where The Money Is Used

As expected the majority of money (60%) goes towards paying for our incredible Mentor teachers.

Other ways we spend money at Mentor Schools include:

• Administration (9.5%): Money for administration is vital for managing the school district. Administration ensures clear communication for families, engaging and focused classes, and of course managing the school budget.
• Operations and Maintenance (8.6%): Money towards this ensures that students continue to have a safe and comfortable learning environment. This also includes any repairs or construction to any part of the schools.
• Pupil Support, Transportation, and Transfers/Advances (Each 5.8%): Paying for nursing, guidance services, various student therapies, and psychological services.  Additionally, transportation ensures students in the Mentor Exempted Village school district can get to school, sports, and Lakeland. Finally, transfers and advances come from withdrawing money from one fund and putting it towards another advance being temporary and transfers being permanent.
• Instructional Staff support (5.4%): This is any money necessary for additional learning services such as the library, staff training, curriculum development, and technology integration
• Athletics and Extracurricular Activities (1.6%): Paying for these programs is important to keep students engaged in sports, arts, or other academics outside of school.

Any other expenditures are the very least that we spend and they only make up about .09% of the money we spend. This includes things like lunch and breakfast services at the schools and services that benefit the community.

Cardinal Nation had the pleasure of asking Mentor Schools Chief Financial Officer some questions about the report and here’s what he had to say.

Cardinal Nation: What of the tax rates information do you think is most important?

Bill Wade: I think a basic understanding of the types of taxes and how your property values impact taxes is important.

(He also included a video he recently made regarding tax rates in lake county to give a better understanding of his answer which is found at the top of this story.)

Cardinal Nation:  Do you think that our expenditures for Fiscal Year 2025 will look similar to Fiscal Year 2024?

Bill Wade: I expect expenditures will be similar to FY24, but increased by about 3.4% higher.

Cardinal Nation: As a follow up to that, do you think the 3.4% expenditure increase will have a significant positive effect on students? 

Bill Wade: These are normal inflationary increases, so I would not expect the increase in expenditures to have any negative impact on students.

Cardinal Nation: Was there anything about the Concord Township property tax breakdown about the different education and public services provided in Mentor, such as Lakeland Community College and the Metroparks, that surprised you?

Bill Wade: There were no surprises in the tax breakdowns. They were all about where we would expect them to be.

Cardinal Nation: Do you think students should understand finances of the school and it’s impact on taxpayers? If yes, why? 

Bill Wade: I think it is important that students have a basic understanding of taxes, like why they exist and how they impact the community. Students have the opportunity to learn these things typically through lessons taught in government and or economics classes.

Cardinal Nation: Do you think that Mentor residents have a good understanding of the impact their taxes have for the school? If yes why is that important?

Bill Wade:  I think educating the community on our finances is one of my most important jobs and that it is never done.

Cardinal Nation: One last takeaway, what of our expenditures do you think students benefit most from?

Bill Wade: We all really value the hiring of high quality teachers! Teachers have the biggest impact on student learning and the costs associated with the staffing of our teaching staff is the biggest expenditure and the one that has the biggest impact.

We hope that with this information you learn more about all of what goes into making Mentor Schools so great and how you as a resident help with that task.

Advisor’s Note: The State of Ohio recently named Mentor High School a 5-star school, the highest rating possible! Watch Cardinal Nation for a story on what this means.