MCDONALD SCHOOLS Board renews center pact

An emergency levy is coming off the McDonald district's books.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
McDONALD -- The school district has become the first of five to approve a new five-year contract to send students to the Gordon D. James Career Center in Lordstown.
The contract between the center and five Trumbull County districts expires in June. The other four school districts in the compact are Niles, Howland, Weathersfield and Lordstown.
McDonald district treasurer Thomas Radabaugh explained that the treasurers and superintendents of the compact schools were asked to come to a decision on a new contract before the end of December.
Radabaugh said McDonald is the first to vote on the new contract, but that vote hinges on approval by the four other districts, or McDonald will withdraw its authorization.
McDonald has sent students to Gordon D. James for 25 years.
Radabaugh said if any other schools in the compact drop out, McDonald will probably have to apply to the Trumbull County Career and Technical Center in Champion for its vocational students.
Costs: Each district pays tuition for its students at the James center and receives $5,000 a year per student from the state.
If students end up at TCTC, the district will receive only $1,250 per student and the cost to all five districts will rise dramatically because of the TCTC tax levy. The total cost is estimated at $2,325,887. McDonald's share would be about $100,000, Radabaugh said.
There has been talk of disbanding the James center compact. Lordstown school officials, who oversee the center, say all the compact schools are needed to keep the center going.
Tax reduction: The McDonald school board, meanwhile, has announced that residents can look forward to a promised reduction in local taxes come February, when a 2.95-mill emergency levy comes off the books.
The levy, which raised $106,000 annually, was approved by voters for three years in November 1998 on a school board promise that it would not seek renewal.
Radabaugh said the reduction will save the owner of a $100,000 house $80 a year, starting with the February tax duplicate.
The board has set its reorganizational meeting for Jan. 10 at 6 p.m., to be followed by its regular meeting at 6:15 p.m.