More staff cuts are coming, Youngstown schools chief says

YOUNGSTOWN — The staff reductions aren’t over yet, Superintendent Wendy Webb told Youngstown City School Board members, in their first meeting after the announcement that 140 positions would be eliminated next school year.

“There’s no alternative,” she said. “We still need to do cuts, but we need to cut appropriately.”

Webb suggested the next casualty of the district’s mounting deficit may be the Irene L. Ward central administrative building on West Wood Street. The state’s fiscal oversight commission recommended the district sell or lease the building in its audit report.

The commission has overseen the district’s finances since it was declared to be in a state of fiscal emergency in November 2006. The school district is operating at a $15 million deficit. If its 9.5-mill levy request is not passed Tuesday, the deficit could climb as high as $48.5 million by 2012.

Webb told board members tonight that Youngstown schools teachers and administrators have been professional about the layoffs. The superintendent likened the district’s shrinking staff roles to the city’s 2010 effort.

“We are shrinking the district, which is much harder to do than growing the district,” she added.

Webb said she was glad the district began making staff cuts four years ago. A total of 300 jobs have been eliminated since then, she said. The district trimmed 96 positions already this year.

For the complete story, see Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.