LORDSTOWN District withholds payment to center

State money could be held back if the bills are unpaid.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- Although Gordon C. James Career Center is closed, the bills haven't stopped coming. And while four districts in the center have paid up, one holdout remains.
Bill Wenger, chairman of the state commission overseeing the Lordstown district's finances, told commission members Monday they may need to eventually get involved in trying to get the fifth district in the former vocational school compact to ante up its share.
Wenger, who declined to identify the district, said although the center closed in June, some bills carried over for the next few months, including salaries, which were paid through August.
"I even hesitate to bring it up," he said, noting the matter could be resolved with payment. Lordstown was the fiscal agent for the James Center.
He said if the bills go unpaid, the commission may hold back state money that will come in January to reimburse the districts for some costs incurred in operating the center. The money is distributed to participating districts in percentages based on the number of students they had enrolled at the center.
"I don't know if the commission will need to get involved, but I didn't want to ask you to make a decision later on something that you were not informed on," Wenger said.
The commission oversees all financial matters in the Lordstown district, which is under fiscal emergency.
Puzzled
Lordstown Superintendent Raymond Getz said the bills, which are also figured on the enrollment basis, have been paid without question by the other districts.
"We are in a quandary as to why this one district has not paid," he said.
The James Center, which operated in Lordstown for 25 years, had 235 juniors and seniors from Lordstown, Niles, Howland, Weathersfield and McDonald schools in career and technical education programs.
It was forced to close when Niles, the largest of the five districts, decided to pull out its 116 students and send them to the Trumbull Career and Technical Center in Champion.
Lordstown, Niles, Weathersfield and McDonald send their students to TCTC. Howland students attend Ashtabula County Joint Vocational School.
slshaulis@vindy.com