Schools plan more staff reductions

Cuts this year and more planned for 2008-09 will total 236 jobs and $14 million.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school district is proposing the elimination of 140 more jobs that will reduce spending by $7 million in the next school year that begins July 1.

That’s on top of 96 cuts made this year, said Superintendent Wendy Webb.

The combined spending reduction for employees and other cuts over the two-year period amounts to $14 million, Webb told the state Financial Planning and Supervision Commission on Wednesday. The commission has been controlling district finances since the state placed Youngstown under fiscal emergency in November 2006 after the district announced it would be running a budget deficit for 2006-07. The deficit reached $15 million.

A recently released state performance audit for that school year recommended that Youngstown look at cutting a total of 376 jobs and make some other changes that would result in a total spending reduction of $17 million.

Webb said the 96 cuts and $7 million in spending reductions imposed this school year aren’t reflected in the audit.

The total of 236 jobs and $14 million in cuts over a two-year period clearly shows the district’s efforts to rein in expenses, she said.

That’s on top of an additional 220 jobs eliminated and about $12 million in spending cuts previously made by the district.

The cutbacks show the district is making internal changes to deal with the budget deficit, but it still needs voters to pass a 9.5-mill, five-year emergency tax levy that would produce about $5.2 million annually in new revenue to help balance the budget, Webb said.

Making the reductions has been a long, difficult process and it hasn’t ended yet, she said, suggesting that more cuts will be forthcoming in 2009-10.

“I think this is a good step,” said Roger Nehls, chairman of the state fiscal oversight commission. He credited the district with doing “a yeoman’s job” in identifying the next layer of cuts it must face.

Commission member Paul Marshall said the commission recognizes the difficulty of making large cuts. It does impact people’s lives, he said, adding that the commission doesn’t expect the district to impose the depth of cuts suggested in the performance audit. No one can implement all of the recommendations, he said, adding that Youngstown officials should, however, be prepared to explain why they can’t meet certain audit recommendations.

Nehls indicated that the commission may use its authority to override the district’s contract with its custodial staff.

Webb said the 31 custodial job eliminations this year and next are the maximum the district can cut because of its contractual agreement with that employee group.

The commission isn’t bound by that contract, Nehls said, adding that the number of custodial cuts proposed “is not where it needs to be.”

He directed the administration to come up with another version of those cuts that could be imposed if the contract limit didn’t exist.

Other changes that will produce spending cuts proposed for 2008-09 include: closing the Athena School of Excellence for Girls building and moving its programs into the Alpha School of Excellence for Boys (gender separation will be maintained); closing the Odyssey School of Possibilities building and moving its programs into the P. Ross Berry Middle School (again maintaining separation); closing the Mary Haddow building as the new Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary opens; revamping the district warehouse utilization and ending its lease for a bus garage; sale or lease of the Ward central office building and moving administrators to Choffin Career & Technical Center and other school buildings; and continuing to look at ways to reduce transportation costs.

gwin@vindy.com