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Volume 54, No. 15
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CHESTERLAND NEWS Wednesday, December 7, 2022
Your Community Newspaper Since 1967
West Geauga Treasurer: Financial Future Depends On New Formula By Brian Doering brian@karlovecmedia.com West Geauga Schools’ overall financial position looks strong, said Treasurer/CFO Karen Pavlat Nov. 21. Pavlat presented the district’s five-year forecast from July 1, 2022, through June 30 of 2027 during the West Geauga Schools Board of Education regular meeting. “Every November, we come in and we have a five-year forecast,” said Pavlat. “Your job as a board is to look out into the future and make some decisions and this helps you do that.” Pavlat said district levies will need to be renewed as they come due before 2027 and 2030, and the master facilities plan may impact the type of renewal. The state budget process still
controls a quarter of the district’s revenues — with local revenues at 75% — and federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds are still being used to support learning loss through additional services, according to Pavlat’s forecast. Pavlat said revenues are expected to remain mostly flat, while expenditures are expected to increase by 3.3%. The district revenues will not be able to keep pace with expenses, which will create deficit spending in fiscal year 2024. “That’s been part of our cycle. We’ve been able to prolong that cycle, but at some point, we are going to exceed our revenues coming in and we are looking at that,” said Pavlat, adding the federal ESSER grant allocations will help to pay for additional tutoring and interven-
West G Plaza Welcomes Comic Book Store See Page 5
SCREENSHOT
School Treasurer/CFO Karen Pavlat appeared before board members on Nov. 21 projecting the district’s financial position with a five-year forcast through 2027.
tion, HVAC infrastructure improvements, doors and water projects through fiscal year 2024. “We’ve had $2.5 million in ESSER funds,” said Pavlat. “We had summer school for the past two
years and some infrastructure improvements for HVAC, and as those things break, we replace them.” Pavlat said total revenue is estimated to increase by less than 1% See Treasurer • Page 7
A Jump Above Equestrian Center Opens
Chester Government Update See Page 4
Real Estate Transfers See Page 7
Letters to The Editor See Page 9
By Ann Wishart ann@karlovecmedia.com
ANN WISHART/KMG
Erika Reschke, right, prepares Wheatly for his first Christmas card photo at A Jump Above Equestrian Center in Chester Township with help from Emily Charis O’Brien, photographer.
Like most lifelong equestrians, Erika Reschke has to pause and look back to determine when she turned the corner from being a rider to being a professional horsewoman. Sitting in the lounge of A Jump Above Equestrian Center, she recalled teaching her first beginner lessons when she was 15 or 16 years old at Hinckley Equestrian Center. “One pony and two kids was where it all started,” she said. A Jump Above, formerly Summer Wind Stables on Chillicothe Road in Chester Township, is where Erika’s teaching and training career has led her and her husband, Ryan Reschke, 34, their two children and Erika’s parents. Erika, 28, formed her business, Reschke Equestrian LLC, in the Medina area six years ago and relocated her hunter-jumper operation several times until the couple went See Equestrian • Page 6
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