Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Officials said the financial crisis was caused primarily by community schools.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The frustration of some city board of education members in dealing with a 15 million budget deficit is becoming evident.
Some of it surfaced during a board finance committee meeting Tuesday.
Youngstown, under the direction of a state-appointed fiscal oversight commission, is making staff cuts and finding other ways to reduce spending. Board members want to be sure that enough is being done to address the deficit and prevent a repeat of the fiscal crisis.
"I think this board needs more information," said member Lock P. Beachum Sr.
The board needs to be more proactive than reactive if it is to avoid a repeat of the decisions that led to the state placing the district under fiscal emergency, he said.
Treasurer Carolyn Funk said she knew the district was headed for financial difficulties four years ago when it began spending its year-end cash balances. She said she told various board members and others of her concerns numerous times.
Other assertions
Board member and committee chairman Jacqueline Taylor told Funk that, when the board was advised in late 2005 to allocate an additional 2.5 million for its self-insurance fund, it was told it could do so without causing a budget deficit.
Board member Jamael Tito Brown said the board was told later that if it cut 2.5 million in staff costs, a deficit would be avoided. The board took that action but the district went into deficit anyway, and the size of that deficit kept growing until it reached 15 million, he said.
Funk tried to explain that the numbers the district must deal with are constantly changing.
The rapid growth of community (charter) schools has been a major drain on district resources, she said, pointing out that Youngstown is now losing thousands of pupils and about 26 million a year to those schools.
Beachum suggested that Funk needs to make some financial projections for the board and should listen to board members sometimes.
"You get defensive too much. Nobody needs to be defensive," Beachum said.
"We have attempted to be proactive," said Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent. "The issue is the community schools and the moving target we have there."
The district has made across-the-board staff and other reductions but is limited by the negotiated contracts it has with its employees, she said.
Beachum suggested the district use the state oversight commission, which is controlling spending while Youngstown schools are in fiscal emergency, to reduce staff as needed to meet a shrinking pupil population. The commission has that type of authority, he said.
Webb said the district is preparing a report identifying every person and every job in the district as part of the plan to look at further reductions.
The oversight commission has said Youngstown needs to put a new tax levy on the November ballot, but Funk said the size of any levy will be determined by how much money the state puts into education next fiscal year.
There is a proposal for "parity aid" to poor districts, including Youngstown. If that comes through, it could reduce the district's need for a levy, she said.
gwin@vindy.com