Austintown residents can sound off on open enrollment

AUSTINTOWN -- Aware that open enrollment could create controversy, the school board has asked that district residents get an opportunity to express their views on it.

The hearing will be 7 p.m. April 14 in the Austintown Fitch High School auditorium.

Doug Heuer, superintendent, says he will urge the board to vote at its next regular meeting April 21 to decide whether to approve open enrollment.

Heuer said he previously thought the decision had to be made by March 30 but learned that the Ohio Department of Education doesn’t have a specific cutoff date. He said the decision does need to be made by this month, however, to complete all steps required by the state.

The decision is one of several important ones Heuer is urging board members to make this month. Others include when to ask voters for additional tax money at the polls and whether to make layoffs before the start of the 2008-09 school year.

Though Heuer said he doesn’t believe board members will be ready to decide officially at the April 21 meeting about a levy request on the August or November ballot, they will have to decide, generally, on a mixture of tax increases and layoffs by then to head off what Heuer now projects to be a $4.9 million deficit at the end of the 2008-2009 school year.

A decision to allow open enrollment would reduce the amount of additional tax money needed and the number of layoffs, he said.

Heuer notifed the teachers union on April 1 that as many as 37 teachers could be laid off this summer. That is more than triple the number that has been on that same list the first two years that Heuer has been superintendent, he said. The list contained about 10 to 12 names the first two years, he said.

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