DISTRICT FINANCES Panel to help shape future

Committee members praised the superintendent for forming the group.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- A committee of city and township residents is set to meet over the next several months to make recommendations for the financial future of the school district.
"Where do we want to go? What do we want Canfield schools to look like in five years?" Superintendent Dante Zambrini asked Monday night at the committee's first meeting.
Zambrini formed the committee and said it will meet five times during the next seven months to formulate recommendations for him as to how the school district should be funded. He said he invited about 65 local residents to serve on the committee; 30 attended Monday's meeting, including parents, business owners, lawyers and financial planners.
Mahoning County Court Judge Scott Hunter, Canfield Police Chief David Blystone, and school board member Bruce Brocker also are serving on the committee and attended.
Deficit
The school district's five-year forecast, submitted to the state department of education in October, shows that it will have a $592,570 deficit at the end of the 2005-06 school year. Zambrini said the forecast will be updated and presented to the committee at its next meeting.
On Monday, Zambrini and district Business Manager Rich Archer reviewed the basics of school financing with the committee and discussed the financial problems faced by the district. Archer said the district had several financial needs, including:
U$800,000 for roof repair and replacement.
URepair or replacement of the gym floor at Canfield High School. The cost of a new floor would be about $138,000.
U$71,000 for emergency paving repairs to the high school parking lot.
U$21,000 to replace a boiler at Canfield Village Middle School.
UAbout $120,000-$300,000 to buy between two and five new buses every year. The state could cover 15 percent of that cost.
The district has about a $20 million budget, and revenue for 54 percent of that comes from local property taxes. Zambrini said that when asked about school funding, state officials say money must be raised from local residents through property tax levies.
He added that state officials also consider Canfield "that rich suburb next to Youngstown," and assume local residents are willing to pay increased taxes for their schools.
The last tax levy Canfield voters approved for schools was a 6.9-mill, five year levy that passed in November 2002 and generates about $3 million each year.
Frugal
Zambrini also stressed that the district has been frugal with taxpayers' money. He noted that the number of administrators in the district's central office has not increased in nearly 30 years, even though enrollment in the district has doubled in that period of time.
"We've been asked to run on a shoestring; we're on dental floss," Zambrini said.
"We're at risk of losing the good things in Canfield schools, the things we're all proud of."
Some of the committee members praised Zambrini for involving the community in decisions about the district's financial future.
"This funding situation is causing us too much grief," said committee member Joyce Brooks, who also serves on the Mahoning County Educational Service Center board. "We're at a point where you just can't continue."
Other committee members, however, stressed that Zambrini may have a difficult time convincing local residents to approve new taxes for the schools in the future.
"People on a personal level are making more and more sacrifices to make ends meet," said committee member Joseph Jeffrey. "In these times ... he's going to have to convince the general public that [the district] is making cuts."
hill@vindy.com