LORDSTOWN SCHOOLS Situation improves in district

The district should end the fiscal year in the black, according to the state auditor's figures.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- School officials see a financial forecast from the state auditor's office as reassurance they are doing the right thing.
Auditor Jim Petro's office has released the outlook for the school district, which is operating under fiscal emergency. It predicts the district will end the fiscal year -- which runs from July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003 -- with a balance of $153,000.
"Things are definitely looking up," said district treasurer Mark Ferrara.
Despite the positive note again -- Lordstown finished fiscal 2002 with a balance of $169,000 -- Ferrara said the district will continue to operate under fiscal emergency at least through summer.
"The biggest reason for that is because our balances are so low," he said. "We are still paying back a loan to the state and that will be finished in time for fiscal year 2004."
Took a loan
Ferrara said that when the district learned it would finish with a deficit of more than $1 million last year, it took a one-time, no-interest loan from the state for more than $1.3 million. Two payments were budgeted to reimburse the state, one this year and one next year, at about $670,000 each.
When that loan is paid off, it leaves more money in the operating budget and takes the district one step closer to moving off fiscal emergency status, which is declared by the state.
Other steps, he said, include filing a five-year forecast with the state that shows no negative revenue flow, which has been done; fulfilling or beginning to meet all recommendations from a performance audit conducted by the state two years ago and making sure the district has at least a one-year contract in place with its unions.
"Our best guess right now is that we can be out of fiscal emergency by sometime at the start of the next school year," Ferrara said.
Effects of closing
In the state forecast, significant changes are itemized in both revenues and expenditures reflecting the closing of the Gordon C. James Career Center.
The center, which hosted five Trumbull County school districts, closed in June when Niles, the largest of the participating districts, decided to pull out its 116 students and send them to the Trumbull Career and Technical Center in Champion.
While Lordstown will lose more than $804,000 in tuition from participating districts, Ferrara noted the district no longer has the expenses associated with the school, either.
"It ends up being a wash," he said. "We don't get that tuition, but we don't have to pay things like teachers' salaries, either."
With the center out of the financial picture, and with the final payment on the state loan made next year, Ferrara said plans are for the district to finish fiscal 2004 with a balance of about $613,000.
slshaulis@vindy.com