Chamber advances proposal to consolidate Valley school districts

YOUNGSTOWN — The Regional Chamber of Commerce hopes to meet with one representative from every school board in the tri-county area this week as it pursues its effort to formulate a school consolidation plan.

Tony Paglia, vice president of government affairs, said the chamber sent an invitation to every school board president in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana County asking that one board representative attend a meeting.

There will be two group sessions in Warren on Tuesday, one in Columbiana County on Thursday and one in Mahoning County on Friday, Paglia said.

The plan is to later seek meetings with school superintendents as a group, he said.

Tom Humphries, chamber president and CEO, announced in March that consolidation of school administrative functions is one way to reduce spending and perhaps allocate more resources to the classroom.

It’s an issue the chamber intends to pursue, Humphries said at the time.

The chamber board of directors endorsed a proposal that would have all school districts in each county administered by a central administrative office rather than have duplicated administrative teams for each district.

Each district would retain its identity, including its own school board and sports teams.

Humphries said a review of declining enrollments in the tri-county area bolster the chamber’s argument for some form of consolidation.

Statistics show that Mahoning Valley school districts have lost 35 percent of their pupils over the last three decades, yet the number of school districts has remained nearly the same, dropping from 46 to 45, each with their required administrative officials, he said.

The three counties had a total of 128,753 pupils enrolled in 1977-78. The number was down to 83,726 in 2005-06, according to information provided to the chamber by the Ohio and the U.S. education departments.

“These continuing trends of enrollment declines and increased spending, particularly for school administrative purposes, is one of the very reasons the Regional Chamber is embarking on an initiative to increase efficiencies in our local school districts,” Humphries said.

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