Treasurer: Levy defeat forces change

Four student representatives to the school board have been selected.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- A projected revenue shortfall is forcing changes in the city school district's financial plans.
At Tuesday's board of education meeting, Treasurer Carolyn Funk said adjustments will need to be made to deal with the defeat of a 9.5-mill levy in the Nov. 7 general election and for other losses of revenue, including reductions in state funds because of pupils leaving the district, she said.
Funk said that the district is looking at a projected 10 million shortfall for this fiscal year and that she hopes the changes will put the district in the black within five years. That forecast is largely predicated on state funding materializing the way school officials hope, Funk noted. If it doesn't, she continued, officials may consider another levy.
Also at the meeting, officials introduced four students who will represent their schools as student board members. They are: Ashley D. Macklin, a senior at Chaney High School; William J. Aponte, a senior at The Rayen School; Tarah Holness, a Wilson High School senior; and Sheldon D. Paramore, a sophomore at Youngstown Early College.
The students will serve one-year terms. They were selected based on their grade-point averages, an essay they wrote and interviews with a panel, explained M. Mike McNair, the district's supervisor of community relations.
They won't have voting powers, but will be able to give reports, McNair added.
Demolition contract
The board passed a resolution awarding a 756,000 contract to Dave Sugar Excavating LLC of Petersburg to demolish East Middle School. Demolition of the school on East High Street should get under way in mid-January, said Anthony DeNiro, assistant superintendent of business affairs. It will be replaced by the new East Middle School, set to open in September 2007.
Board members heard a presentation touting gains in math scores this year, compared with 2005. Improvements higher than the state average were seen in grades three, four, six, seven and eight and were largely attributable to math coaches, more instruction and hands-on lessons, several math teachers reported to the board.