Job cuts won’t fix city school deficit

By ELISE FRANCO

The district still has a long way to go to get out of debt, the latest financial update shows.

YOUNGSTOWN— School district Treasurer William Johnson said job cuts alone will not be enough to bring the school district out of debt.

A 9.5-mill emergency tax levy, which is projected to bring in $5.2 million annually, must pass in November to pull the district out of debt by 2012, he said. The levy has failed three times.

Earlier this year, the district went through a state performance audit, which recommended cutting 376 jobs to save more than $17 million. Members of the district’s administration presented an update on what has been done to comply with the auditor’s suggestions during Thursday’s Financial Planning and Supervision Commission meeting.

The commission has been overseeing the district’s finances since the state placed Youngstown under fiscal emergency in November 2006.

Johnson presented a five-year fiscal forecast reflecting all cuts, taxes and spending. The forecast showed that if the levy is passed, by the end of the fiscal year 2012, the school district will be $1.7 million in the black.

“We’re operating on this model that is going to be updated monthly to get a better insight into what’s going on,” he said.

Damon Dohar, assistant superintendent of human resources, said 40 administrative positions have been cut over the last three fiscal years, which begins on July 1 and ends on June 30.

“Right now we are combining a lot of responsibilities,” he said. “Everyone is taking on extra work.”

Dohar also said 122 of the proposed 168 teaching positions have been cut so far, and only 12 of the recommended 43 teaching aides have been laid off.

“A lot of classrooms require teaching aides, so it’s very difficult,” he said. “We are trying to look at it strategically and figure out how we can combine things.”

Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs, said the recommended 10 active buses have been eliminated.

“We want to put GPS systems on all the buses to better track them,” he said. “It will also help us get a better handle on routing the buses.”

DeNiro also said the cost to insure the buses has gone down because more vehicles have been taken off the road, and the ones still in circulation have been in fewer accidents than in previous years.

Superintendent Dr. Wendy Webb said a new special education busing contract, that will save the district $200,000, has been drawn up. The contract will be presented to the school board at its next regular meeting.

To date, 261 teaching, nonteaching and administrative positions have been cut, said John Allen, the district’s ombudsman.

Commission member Paul Marshall and chairman Roger Nehls said they were happy with how the district approached the auditor’s suggestions.

Marshall said even though not all the proposed cuts had been made, acceptable reasons were given for everything they did or didn’t do.

Nehls said the district still has much work to do if it wants to remedy the problem, however, and another update will be needed soon.

“There’s still a gap between the recommendation and implementation, and I have cautioned over time that it has to be an incremental process,” he said. “The district has been responsive and aggressive in making and implementing the changes.”

efranco@vindy.com