HUBBARD SCHOOLS Many meet to discuss levy, layoffs

Fiscal watch or fiscal emergency looms if the levy fails.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
HUBBARD -- A crisis atmosphere prevailed when about 150 people gathered at Reed Middle School for a two-hour board of education meeting, with a vote on a 9.9-mill, five-year emergency operating levy less than two weeks away.
With the school district proposing layoffs of six teachers and four aides in the financial recovery plan it submitted to the state, a majority of Wednesday's audience consisted of faculty.
President's comments: "We need the staff in our elementary. All the educational research shows that lowering class sizes in K through 4 increases students' performance. It also clearly shows that special areas, such as art and Phys. Ed., impact those proficiency scores,'' said Chris Gehring, president of the 150-member Hubbard Education Association.
"The state forces us to drive our curriculm based on those tests. If we're driving the curriculum to improve those scores, raising our class size and eliminating our special areas is exactly the wrong thing to do," she said, adding that most of the proposed teacher layoffs would be at Roosevelt Elementary School. She also urged support for the levy.
Superintendent Carl T. Morell said actual staffing needs for next year will depend on enrollment.
State funding is linked to enrollment, said Treasurer Phillip D. Butto IV.
"We had to show the Ohio Department of Education in good faith where this board was going to buckle down and get financially solvent,'' said Judy Montgomery, board president.
"You may be back. You may not be back in the same building. You may be back in another capacity, but I am telling you as board president, we will make every effort to bring back those teachers,'' she explained to the audience.
Warned of failure: If the levy fails, the district faces fiscal watch or fiscal emergency, warned Gary Ghizzoni, chairman of the levy committee. If it goes into fiscal emergency, a state financial oversight commission will take over financial decision-making, he said.
Because state law prohibits school districts from collecting money from increases in property values, the original 9.9 mills has been reduced to 6.4. The board seeks 3.5 lost mills, restoring the levy to its 1986 level of 9.9 mills.
If the 9.9 mill-levy passes May 8, it will cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $107 a year. The levy is part of the financial recovery plan.
If the levy passes, the district will have a deficit of $1,007,000 in 2003, Butto said. If it fails, that deficit will be about $400,000 higher.