Officials try, try again for school levy

Levy backers say the
increase would run for five years and then expire.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school district is taking a second crack at trying to persuade voters to approve a five-year, 9.5-mill operating levy.

Voters turned down the same basic tax proposal in November 2006 by a margin of some 2,100 votes, and school officials said at the time that they learned from the experience and would be back, again asking for a temporary tax increase.

Those officials appear to have made a stronger concerted, grass-roots effort to convince taxpayers the levy is necessary as the Nov. 6 election nears.

One of the common public complaints voiced after last’s year’s levy failure is that the school district needed to cut spending and live within its budget.

Youngstown has trimmed spending by about $17 million over the last two fiscal years, beginning in 2006-07 when the general fund ran a $15 million deficit, school officials said.

Those cuts included the elimination of about 250 jobs, and teachers and administrators alike have accepted pay freezes and started picking up a portion of their health-care costs.

The state placed Youngstown city schools under fiscal emergency last fall and created a five-member fiscal oversight commission that controls all district spending.

That commission, which includes three local residents, appears to be pleased with the spending reductions made thus far (although more are anticipated) but has warned that cuts alone won’t return the district to solvency.

Additional revenue is required, and the commission has recommended passage of the temporary levy.

School officials have said that, with the estimated $5 million a year in additional revenue the levy would generate, the district could be returned to solvency by 2012.

They’ve also pointed out that city schools haven’t had an operating levy passed in about two decades, although voters did approve a 4.4-mill tax increase in 2000 to help finance some $180 million in rebuilding or replacing city school buildings.

Voters also authorized a $4 million bond issue to add financing for that project in November 2004.

Levy opponents claim the school district has failed to react to a declining enrollment, is top heavy with central office administrators, and is failing to make educational progress with its pupils.

Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent, said much of the $17 million cut so far is aimed at resizing the district to adjust for declining numbers of pupils.

She also has said the ranks of administrators have taken a larger hit in cutbacks, percentagewise, than other departments.

School officials have said the district is making academic progress, and, although rated in academic watch on the state’s local report card for last school year, it narrowly missed reaching the continuous improvement level.

The graduation rate has risen from a dismal 49 percent about five years ago to nearly 72 percent last year.

Had the state not raised the number of academic standards districts are required to meet in their annual report cards from 25 to 30 last year, Youngstown would be in continuous improvement now, Webb said, explaining that pupils had improved their performance on the initial 25 standards to rate the higher ranking.

That’s clear evidence that academic progress is being made, school officials have said.

Cutbacks made thus far have been directed away from academics, as are some other pending reductions, Webb said.

If the levy is rejected, however, Youngstown will be forced to begin looking at eliminating academic programs and the momentum achieved thus far will be lost, she said.

It costs money to run the types of intervention programs Youngstown has implemented to help improve test scores, she said, adding the district needs more to help pupils, not less.

Some levy opponents claim the district has been mismanaged, and there have been a number of calls, some publicly, for the school board to replace Webb, and even some calls for replacement of the board. No school board members have called for Webb’s removal.

Recent reports about fights in and around some schools, particularly the new East and expanded Chaney high schools, have served as anti-levy fodder on Web sites discussing the issue, with some saying the district needs to clean out the troublemakers, deal with alleged mismanagement, and improve academic performance before asking for a tax increase.

gwin@vindy.com