Group fighting levy sends ideas to panel

The group says cutting the central administration staff can reduce spending,.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A group opposed to a proposed 9.5-mill city school tax levy is taking its complaints directly to a state commission overseeing the school district’s finances.

The Citizens Action Committee Against the Levy has sent a letter to the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission, questioning the need for a 9.5-mill levy and suggesting ways the district can cut spending and perhaps avoid a tax increase.

The state placed the Youngstown city schools in fiscal emergency 10 months ago after the district predicted it would end fiscal 2007 with a budget deficit. That resulted in the appointment of a five-member commission to oversee district finances.

Youngstown ended the year $15 million in the red and is proposing a 9.5-mill, five-year tax levy as part of its financial recovery plan.

The levy comes after the district already has eliminated 250 jobs and cut spending by $17 million in effort to help balance the budget.

Further, unspecified cuts are coming, school officials have said.

In a letter addressed to Roger Nehls, commission chairman, Delores Womack, chairwoman of the citizens committee, questioned why the district is being allowed to spend more money than it is taking in, thereby continuing its deficit status.

District spending is expected to reach $112 million this year, while revenue is pegged at only $104 million.

Her suggestions

She suggested that administrative positions at the district’s board offices on Wood Street could be combined to cut costs, specifically targeting the K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 academic coordinator positions as one example.

Combine those assignments under the current educational director of pupil personnel at an annual savings of $145,000, Womack said.

She also suggested the position of community/public relations supervisor be reduced from full-time to an “as needed” basis.

Womack further called for school personnel to pick up more of their health-care costs, suggested that board members trips to conventions be reduced to save money, and that the district look at re-negotiating or re-bidding some of its special service contracts.

She said the district already has construction levies that will take 23 years to pay off, the district tax base continues to erode, and the Ohio Board of Education reports that the median income base here is only $19,602 annually.

Many district central and school building administrators are being paid almost four and five times that amount in annual salaries, Womack said, suggesting, “Something is wrong with that picture.”

“You cannot tax us to oblivion. Our disposable incomes are continuing to shrink due to the costs levied on us by services we need just to exist,” she said, citing utility costs, insurance, food and medicine as examples.

Just how detailed the oversight commission is willing to get in mandating spending reductions is unclear.

The commission has so far appeared to rely on the district’s own reduction proposals, preferring to let those who know the district determine where cuts should be made.

The commission meets again at 11 a.m. Thursday in the board offices at 20 W. Wood St.

gwin@vindy.com