Finance board for schools nearly set

By Harold Gwin

Two of the required three community members have been appointed so far.

YOUNGSTOWN — An independent financial advisory committee created by the city school board nearly two years ago to look at district spending is set to be activated this month.

The board appointed two of the three community members in July and expects to name the third and final community member early this month. Those three will be joined by three school board members — chairmen of the finance, personnel and business committees — to form the advisory panel.

The goal is to have the committee hold its first meeting and get organized before the end of August, said Shelley Murray, school board president.

Board member Lock P. Beachum Sr. brought up the idea of an independent body to look at school finances after the district was placed under fiscal watch by the state for running a budget deficit.

The board debated the issue, deciding how much authority the panel should have and to whom it would report, and agreed in September 2006 to create the advisory panel.

The idea was kind of dropped there, however, Murray recalled.

The district was downgraded to fiscal emergency in November 2006, but the school board at the time didn’t seem to want to move on the advisory committee issue, Beachum said. The board got three new members this year and has become more aggressive in looking at finances, he added.

Murray, who was elected president this year, has been asking board members for nominations for the committee for a couple of months. She got two, and the board appointed Lena Hopkins, a retired city school teacher and assistant principal, and Greg Slemons, a certified public accountant and former school treasurer in Warren, Hubbard and Orange City, as the first two community members.

Slemons, now an investment banker for Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets, said he sees the panel’s job as being “another set of eyes” for the district.

He said he worked with a citizens committee while in Orange City that was active and he found its advice to be helpful.

Having something similar in Youngstown is “absolutely a good idea,” he said.

Hopkins, who now works as a tax preparer for H&R Block, said she was approached by someone in the district who asked if she would be interested in serving on the panel.

“I told them, ‘I’ll see if there’s anything I can help you with’” she said, adding that some of the financial work the committee is expected to look at “may be a little over my head.”

Murray said a third name has been proposed and that appointment could come as early as the Aug. 12 board meeting.

The three community members will be joined by Finance Committee Chairwoman Jacqueline Taylor, Business Committee Chairman Michael Murphy and Personnel Committee Chairman Anthony Catale.

One of the three community members must serve as advisory panel chairman.

“We don’t want to have any stone unturned. There are no sacred cows,” Beachum said, explaining the panel will be instructed to look at all areas of spending with an eye on how the district can further trim its budget.

The board has to show the public that it has done all it can to control spending before asking voters to approve a new tax levy, he said.

Youngstown already has unsuccessfully asked voters three times to approve a 9.5-mill tax levy to help overcome the budget deficit that stood at $10.4 million at the end of the fiscal year June 30. The issue is expected to be back on the ballot in November.

Murray said the panel will be strictly advisory and report directly to the school board. Bringing community representation into the picture will be a positive step, she said.

The panel will be expected to review all district financial documents, including audits and contracts, and perhaps come up with some ideas for cutting spending. Coming in from outside, the community members might spot things the school board has overlooked, she said.

The board already has cut annual spending by some $26 million, largely through the elimination of about 450 jobs over the last two years, but has been unable to cut its way to solvency. It’s had to borrow some $25 million from the state to avoid ending the last two years in the red, and still owes about $18 million of that debt.

The current school board’s intent is to have the committee as a “long-standing” body, not just a temporary addition to the financial review picture, Murray said.

gwin@vindy.com