This article is open to all free of cost, as the reporting for this entire series was made possible by a grant from the Poynter Institute with support from the Joyce Foundation.
Read all of our reporting on the American Rescue Plan Act’s impact in Ashland County here. And if you have any questions for the reporter, send him an email at dillon@ashlandsource.com.
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ASHLAND — Most of the American Rescue Plan Act money that went to schools in Ashland County addressed capital outlay expenses.
Of the $13.1 million received at six public schools throughout the county, $5 million — or 38% — went to this category. Capital outlay included expenses related to building new classrooms, renovations and upgrades to equipment, infrastructure and property.
The big spender here was Ashland City Schools. It’s no surprise — school districts received ARPA money based on enrollment. Ashland City Schools is the largest school district in the county, based on enrollment data.
But another factor is the reality that capital spending between 2021 and 2024 was tightly connected to the inflated prices of construction goods.
A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Producer Price Index table released in May showed double-digit percentage increases to everything from copper wire to gypsum and lumber since 2020.
In total, Ashland City Schools spent $2.1 million on capital projects — 34% of its total $6.1 million allocation.
The project at the high school involved replacing the building’s center area windows.
“The center area of the high school, where you’re facing an entire wall of windows right there? That is one of the main pieces that got replaced,” said Kyle Klingler, Ashland City Schools' treasurer.
That wall of windows was original to the 1960 structure. Klingler said the project had been on district leaders’ wishlist for years. But the $1.3 million line item didn’t just replace those windows. It also covered replacing other windows around the building, and other doorways and ventilation upgrades inside.
Officials also spent $851,000 to remove asbestos and upgrade the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system at Taft Intermediate School. Klingler said the asbestos, a natural insulating fiber that is a known carcinogenic, was in the ceilings and floors at the building.
| Project | Expenditure | Payee |
| Ashland High School windows, doorways | $1,350,143.48 | Hammond Construction |
| Taft Intermediate School HVAC update, asbestos removal | $851,333.08 | Massillon Construction and Supply, LLC |
Similar efforts occurred over the last few years to remove asbestos in other district buildings, Klingler said. (Asbestos becomes dangerous when disturbed or damaged and releases fibers into the air that can be inhaled, according to WebMD.)
The ARPA money, therefore, allowed the district to give updates to two buildings that were omitted from previous renovation projects, he said.
The district’s capital outlay, $2.1 million, represents roughly a third of its allocation, Klingler acknowledged.
Proportionality
Proportionally speaking, however, ACS’s capital outlay expenses fall in the middle when compared to other districts.
Ashland County Community Academy (ACCA), for example, spent only 5% of its total ARPA allocations on capital outlays. The district spent $13,375 of its $255,330 allocation on repairing an elevator.
ACCA enrolled 92 students in grades 7 to 12 considered "at risk of dropping out of school,” or those who have “previously dropped out” in the 2023-24 school year, according to its annual report.
Mapleton Local Schools spent 7% of its $1.8 million on capital outlays. The district bought a bus with the money.
Black River Local School District was on the other end of the spectrum, using 97% of its ARPA allocation on capital outlays.
Jill Beiser, the district’s assistant superintendent, said the money went to improving HVAC systems in the high school and the elementary school.
The money also bought 12 modular classrooms — six are used for elementary levels and six are used for high school grades.
Beiser said the district had modular classrooms previously. But those modules’ layouts did not meet health requirements during the pandemic.
“So we needed to take them down and build permanent modular classrooms,” she said.
Loudonville schools' capital expenditures included replacing heating controls in all buildings — they also added a temperature monitoring system and the ability to adjust temperatures remotely, said Jennifer Allerding, the district's superintendent.
Allerding said the district also:
- Replaced boilers at McMullen Elementary School
- Installed stall dividers in restrooms at the high school and McMullen
- Replaced a dishwashing system at the high school
- Installed serving lines at the high school's cafeteria
- Restored roofs at three high school buildings and McMullen
Change of plans
Before receiving ESSER ARPA money, school districts across Ohio underwent an application process. Administrators filled out applications on the Comprehensive Continuous Improvement Plan, or CCIP.
The applications, due each year, include a forecast of sorts that show regulators how districts plan to spend the money.
Ashland City Schools, for example, originally stated the district's capital outlay budget was around $3.7 million
As we know, however, ACS ended up spending $2.1 million.
Klingler said that's because administrators narrowed the scope of the project at the high school. The work at Taft Intermediate, all said and done, actually cost around $1.1 million. But ESSER dollars didn't cover some of the elements of that project, the treasurer said.
This discrepancy was common among school districts in Ashland County, and all other districts across Ohio, Klingler said.
ARP ESSER dollars spanned multiple years. To keep track, Ohio regulators required districts to "close out" the year and start over again, he said.
"So every year, we had to come up with a plan with what we were going to do with the leftover amount of dollars we had ... I would have loved to say the plan stayed the same the entire time, but obviously things change," Klingler said.
Ashland County school districts’ capital outlay decisions were fueled by different needs. The decisions represent differences in approach, but educators seem to agree that updated buildings and modernized classrooms can lead to better learning.
Why buildings?
The average age of instructional buildings in the U.S. public school system is 49. Nearly 40% of those buildings were built prior to 1970 and only 20% were built in the last 24 years.
In other words, school buildings in America are getting old. That number comes from a December 2023 National Center for Education Statistics survey.
"The condition of our school facilities plays a critical role in the education of more than 49 million U.S. public school students," said NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr. "School facilities provide a setting for learning and affect health and comfort of the school's students and staff."
Are new buildings and upgraded windows and doors beneficial to learning? Some studies say yes.
A study involving 28 updated and older schools in two urban school districts (Washington D.C. and Baltimore) between 2021-2023 found that modernized buildings — those with updates made within 10 years — led to better English language arts and mathematics scores.
Besides test scores, the study looked into how updated buildings affected enrollment, truancy and graduation rates. It found that modernized buildings experienced “statistically significant growth in enrollment, while graduation rates also trended upward.”
What about truancy?
Curiously, modernized buildings had a negative impact on truancy.
"There was a significant increase over time for students attending modernized schools — a finding that ran counter to the research team’s expectations," the study found. "There was no significant difference in truancy over time for students attending non-modernized schools.”
Another study found school districts serving students in poverty and students of color can expect test scores to rise after they invest local dollars to fix faulty HVAC systems or patch roofs.
The same study concluded that test scores don't really change when school districts invest local dollars in new athletic facilities or expanded classroom space.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 15,000 school bond ballot referenda in 28 states between 1990 and 2017.
'Adding to the educational experience'
Capital outlay investments could play a role in better learning — that much is clear. How much of a role will continue to be debated.
For Klingler, brighter hallways and cleaner air at school buildings are just part of the district administration's overall goal: educating young people.
"All those things, I think, are adding to the educational experience here at the school district," he said.