Educators to mull 1 center per county Consolidation is chamber’s goal

School officials have been less than enthusiastic about the chamber’s plan.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN —  What would it look like if Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties each had just one school administrative center?

That’s the question that will be put to some 30 local educators Wednesday by the Regional Chamber of Commerce as it pursues its proposal to consolidate local public school administrations.

The meeting isn’t likely to be a love fest.

The chamber believes schools can run more efficiently with less money spent on administration by consolidating each county under a central administrative office. The move would put all districts in each county under a single superintendent. The three educational service centers and career centers would be included in the plan.

School officials have generally been less than enthusiastic about the chamber’s proposal and were critical of the chamber’s going public with its plan before discussing it with those involved in running the local schools.

They also pointed out that a nationwide report card on academic performance showed that Ohio scored well above other states that are operating with countywide school systems.

The tri-county region is spending between $85 million and $100 million a year on administration, said Tony Paglia, chamber vice president for government affairs.

If that could be cut by 25 percent through some consolidation, it would free up between $20 million and $25 million that the chamber would like to see channeled into tuition assistance for area high school students who choose to attend area higher education centers.

It might require some change in Ohio’s laws to allow public tax dollars to be diverted to scholarships, but the sharing of administrators is already allowed in this state, Paglia said.

“It’s really a blank sheet right now,” Paglia said, explaining that the chamber is looking at all top central office positions, not just superintendents. Treasurers, curriculum directors and others are part of the picture, he said.

The chamber has invited the superintendents of the three Educational Service Centers to bring 10 people from their counties to Wednesday’s meeting at 7 p.m. at the Boardman Holiday Inn.

The chamber will bring 10 of its members as well, mostly company chief executive and chief financial officers, Paglia said.

The group will be asked to come up with scenarios on what personnel would be needed to staff a central county school administration office under a single superintendent.

Paglia said three facilitators from Cleveland State University will run the meeting, explaining that the use of outsiders to direct the discussion was suggested at earlier meetings on the consolidation issue.

There has been little support for the single superintendent proposal since the chamber unveiled the ambitious plan last spring, Paglia said. But people do seem to think there is room for improvements in operations, he said, and there is interest in some sharing of services to save money.

Richard Denamen, superintendent of the Mahoning County Educational Service Center, recently pointed out that the pupils-per-administrator ratio found in the countywide school systems mentioned by the chamber are worse than the ratio locally.

Using the chamber’s own numbers shows that those countywide systems have ratios between 60 and 101 pupils per administrator. Locally, the number is 137 per administrator, an indication that the schools here aren’t top heavy, he said.

Paglia said the chamber is more interested in the percentage of school budgets spent on administration.

The countywide systems ranged between 8 percent and 10 percent of their budget for administration. Locally, the number is as high as 17 percent in some districts, and very few are below the 10 percent mark, he said.

gwin@vindy.com