Building Data
Highlights — 2025–26 unless noted// End-of-Course Exams
Percent At Least Proficient, 2025–26. Green clears 40%.
| Subject | Tested | Proficient+ | vs 24–25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts II | 113 | 44.2% | +9.5 |
| American History | 103 | 52.4% | +5.4 |
| American Government | 89 | 49.4% | -5.4 |
| Biology | 112 | 30.4% | -3.9 |
| Geometry | 103 | 15.5% | ±0.0 |
| Algebra I | 95 | 10.5% | +2.7 |
| All subjects | 615 | 33.8% | −0.1 |
Source: ODEW School Test Results, 2025–26 with 2024–25 comparison. Percentages use ODEW’s tested count as the denominator, excluding untested students.
// Chronic Absenteeism
All high school students — chronically absent rate by year.
Students with disabilities — same measure.
Students by attendance category (FTE):
| Category | 22–23 | 23–24 | 24–25 | 25–26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satisfactory | 56.8 | 48.4 | 41.0 | 38.5 |
| At-Risk | 71.6 | 76.5 | 70.1 | 61.4 |
| Moderate | 88.4 | 90.2 | 98.5 | 110.7 |
| Severe | 52.0 | 83.1 | 100.3 | 106.7 |
| Total base FTE | 268.7 | 298.1 | 309.8 | 317.3 |
Severe absenteeism has more than doubled (52 → 107 FTE) while Satisfactory fell by a third. Source: ODEW Student Data Report Portal.
// Discipline Occurrences
Referrals by year (bar length relative to the 175 peak).
Source: ODEW Discipline Occurrences (Incident Location, School Level) — 5-Year Trend.
// Course Pass Rates
Percent passing by grade and subject, Quarters 1–3 (grades as of week of 12/1).
| Grade | ELA | Math | Science | Soc. Studies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quarter 1 | ||||
| 9th | 64% | 80% | 71% | 50% |
| 10th | 77% | 77% | 83% | 73% |
| 11th | 94% | 75% | 70% | 75% |
| 12th | 85% | 84% | 77% | 80% |
| Quarter 2 | ||||
| 9th | 63% | 86% | 66% | 66% |
| 10th | 73% | 79% | 71% | 72% |
| 11th | 59% | 76% | 87% | 79% |
| 12th | 70% | 77% | 77% | 80% |
| Quarter 3 | ||||
| 9th | 65% | 84% | 77% | 58% |
| 10th | 80% | 85% | 79% | 82% |
| 11th | 92% | 83% | 67% | 90% |
| 12th | 93% | 96% | 68% | 87% |
Source: Progress Book, HS Academic Data. Percentages are pass rates; the source also tracks the share of passes that are D’s.
// Subgroups
EOC Proficiency — Students With vs Without Disabilities
| Subject | SWD | Non-SWD | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am. Government | 12.5% | 69.6% | 57.1 |
| American History | 7.7% | 58.4% | 50.7 |
| English II | 12.5% | 41.6% | 29.1 |
| Biology | 9.5% | 41.0% | 31.5 |
| Geometry | 13.3% | 15.9% | 2.6 |
| Algebra I | 5.9% | 8.3% | 2.4 |
2024–25. Note the pattern: where overall performance is strongest (Government, History) the gap is largest. In the two math tests both groups struggle, so the gap is small — that is not good news.
Chronic Absenteeism — Students With Disabilities
SWD chronic absenteeism rose 48% → 80% while the all-student rate went 47% → 64%, widening the gap from about 1 point to 16.
Breakdowns by English learner status, race/ethnicity and gender are in the source folder. They are dashboard screenshots rather than tables, so they are not reproduced here — open the folder for those.
// Student Risk Dashboard — HS Snapshot
The district Student Data Dashboard sorts every student into tiers for attendance, referrals, reading and math, then rolls those into an overall risk band. These are the high school percentages. Green clears; red is Tier 3 or high risk.
Percent of HS students in each band.
Overall Risk
Attendance Tiers
Reading Tiers
Math Tiers
Referral Tiers
Building-level percentages only. The dashboard’s student-level tab is not published here and will not be — it names 1,374 students with attendance, referral, risk and assessment data, which is a protected education record under FERPA. This site is public. Reach the student-level view through the district dashboard with your own sign-in. HS bars omit the small “no data” slice where it isn’t shown; reading and math show it because it is large enough to matter.
// District Finances — Five-Year Forecast
Ohio requires every district to file a five-year forecast with the Department of Education and Workforce twice a year. It is public record. Everything below comes from North College Hill’s own filings (IRN 044511); the most recent is the Required Spring Update filed February 12, 2026. This is the budget picture behind the levy discussion — worth knowing, because it is the same picture the Board is working from.
The Current Forecast
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Spending | Ending cash |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 actual | $17.58M | $17.46M | $3.41M |
| FY2024 actual | $19.35M | $16.63M | $7.06M |
| FY2025 actual | $19.79M | $20.67M | $6.14M |
| FY2026 budget | $19.84M | $22.30M | $3.62M |
| FY2027 forecast | $19.89M | $21.03M | $2.42M |
| FY2028 forecast | $19.93M | $21.79M | $502K |
| FY2029 forecast | $19.82M | $23.05M | ($2.79M) |
Revenue is line 1.070, spending is line 4.500, and ending cash is line 7.020 — which excludes any new levy money. FY2026 is a budget, not an actual; the year is not closed.
How the Outlook Has Changed
Each filing projects cash on hand in its final year. Every filing from late 2023 through late 2025 was worse than the one before it.
| Filed | Projected cash in its final year |
|---|---|
| Nov 2023 through FY2027 | $6.21M |
| May 2024 through FY2027 | $4.79M |
| Nov 2024 through FY2028 | $1.37M |
| May 2025 through FY2028 | ($618K) |
| Oct 2025 through FY2029 | ($8.36M) |
| Feb 2026 current through FY2029 | ($2.79M) |
The February 2026 filing is about $5.6M better than the October 2025 one for the same year. Most of that improvement is lower projected spending, not new revenue.
What Changed Between Those Two Filings
Projected salaries and wages (line 3.010) were revised down in every year:
| Year & change | Oct 2025 filing | Feb 2026 filing |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 −$624K | $14.41M | $13.79M |
| FY2027 −$1.72M | $14.35M | $12.63M |
| FY2028 −$2.01M | $14.94M | $12.94M |
| FY2029 −$2.09M | $15.65M | $13.56M |
A forecast is an assumption, not a decision — and it does not say how a reduction of that size would be reached. That is a fair question for the Treasurer’s office or the Board, and the meetings are open. Note that the same filing still funds the negotiated 2% base increase in both years of the Master Contract.
The Levy
The February 2026 filing is the first NCH forecast to assume revenue from a new income tax — the levy the Board took up at its June 8 special meeting. The forecast pencils it in at $115K in FY2027, $1.37M in FY2028 and $2.07M in FY2029.
That money is what separates the two bottom lines. Without it, cash on hand runs to −$2.79M by June 2029. With it, the unreserved balance stays positive — $2.35M, then $1.80M, then $581K — which is roughly two weeks of payroll on a $19.8M budget.
The district has since published its own levy material. It is a 1.25% earned income tax on the 3 November 2026 ballot, applying only to wages and self-employment income — not Social Security, pensions, other retirement income or investments. At $50,000 of earned income it works out to $625 a year, about $52 a month; at $75,000, $937.50 a year. The last operating levy NCH voters approved was in May 2005.
The district’s revenue estimates run above what the February forecast penciled in — $143,740 in FY2027, $1.72M in FY2028, $2.59M in FY2029 and $2.76M in FY2030, against the forecast’s $115K / $1.37M / $2.07M. The flyer is the newer of the two; the next forecast filing is what will reconcile them. On the district’s figures, ending cash without the levy is −$1.66M in FY2029 and −$5.99M in FY2030, and with it, $2.61M then $1.03M. Either way the district puts the ongoing structural reduction still needed at $1.5M in FY2028 and another $1.5M in FY2029, to avoid a second Financial Recovery Plan.
Money would not arrive quickly. If approved, the tax takes effect 1 January 2027; some revenue comes in during 2027 as employers begin withholding, but most follows the 2028 tax filings — the district describes an 18–24 month gap between the vote and the full revenue.
The facts sheet also lists what has already gone for 2026–27 — 18 teaching positions and 5 educational aides, the ES and MS MTSS intervention programs, 5th and 6th grade band and HS jazz band, and middle and high school boys’ and girls’ soccer — and what the district says follows a failed levy: middle and high school baseball and high school softball, then staffing reductions for 2027–28. It puts the Fair School Funding Plan shortfall at $6,659,420, NCH receiving $1,764,919 of the $8,424,339 the original formula allocated.
Levy Flyer (PDF) Levy Facts Sheet (PDF) All Ohio Forecast Filings (DEW) Board Agendas & Minutes Treasurer’s Office
The two levy PDFs are the district’s own published material, reproduced here as handed out — they are the district making its case, not a neutral analysis, and the flyer’s own header still carries a stale “May 5, 2026” ballot date that contradicts the November date in its item 8. Everything else in this section is from the filings.
Source: North College Hill City (IRN 044511) five-year forecast submissions, FY2024–FY2026, as filed with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Dollar figures are rounded for reading; the filings hold the exact numbers. Nothing here is an official district statement — for anything that matters, read the filing or ask the Treasurer.
// How NCH Compares
Every Ohio district files the same five-year forecast, so the same figures exist for all of them. Below is North College Hill against the 17 other Hamilton County districts and against 451 districts statewide, all from the FY2026 spring filings. Per-pupil figures use each district’s own reported October enrolment.
Where the Money Comes From
Share of total revenue from unrestricted state aid, FY2026. Hamilton County districts.
NCH is the most state-dependent district in the county at 62%, against a county median of 22% and an Ohio median of 38% — 32nd highest of 451 districts statewide. The mirror image is local property tax: 22% of NCH revenue, the lowest in the county, where the median is 56%. That is why the $896,000 fall in state aid lands harder here than almost anywhere nearby.
How Long the Cash Would Last
Cash on hand at 30 June 2026, expressed as days of spending. Lower is tighter.
NCH has 59 days — the lowest in Hamilton County, against a county median of 123 and an Ohio median of 141. Only 27 of 451 districts statewide report less. Of the 17 county districts, two forecast negative cash by FY2029: NCH and Winton Woods.
Per Pupil
| Revenue | Spending | |
|---|---|---|
| North College Hill | $15,288 | $17,178 |
| Hamilton County median | $17,500 | $17,991 |
| Ohio median | $16,925 | $16,604 |
NCH takes in $2,213 less per pupil than the county median while spending only $813 less. Across 1,298 students that is roughly $2.9M a year less coming in against about $1.1M a year less going out. The difference between those two is the deficit.
Source: FY2026 Required Spring Update five-year forecasts filed by all Ohio districts with the Department of Education and Workforce. Of 659 filings, 451 report the enrolment needed for per-pupil comparison and are included; 23 Hamilton County entities file, of which 17 are comparable districts — Great Oaks Career Campuses is excluded as a career centre rather than a K–12 district. Days-of-cash is ending cash divided by average daily spending: a rough solvency measure, not an official statistic.
// Where the full data lives
These are highlights only. Every chart, demographic breakdown and the reflection questions are in the shared folder.
School Data — EOC, Attendance & Discipline
Also in the Staff 2026–2027 Drive under Welcome Back — Game Day Analysis.