Schools’ spending cuts please outside panel
By Harold Gwin
The committee reported that 25 percent of the district’s budget goes to other schools.
YOUNGSTOWN — A Financial Advisory Committee created by the city school board to take an outsider’s look at district finances says it is pleased with spending cuts the district has made.
The board established the committee to provide another examination of the budget to show the public what has been done in seeking to eliminate a budget deficit and to provide another source of suggestions for controlling spending.
The committee also is to provide some accountability of the board’s efforts to resolve its financial dilemma.
The state placed Youngstown under fiscal emergency in November 2006 after the district was facing a $15 million deficit that year.
Since then, Youngstown has been reducing spending and cutting jobs to reduce the red ink.
“We are very pleased to see what has happened over the last three years financially,” said Greg Slemons, committee chairman.
The committee, comprised of three community and three school board members, was only activated in September, although the school board approved its creation in 2006. The members are Slemons and Scott Roush, both certified public accountants, Lena Hopkins, a retired city school teacher and assistant principal, and board members Jacqueline Taylor, Anthony Catale and Michael Murphy.
The group already has met five times and made its initial public report at Tuesday’s school board meeting at McGuffey Elementary School after reviewing various audits and financial reports.
Perhaps its most striking finding is that Youngstown is giving away about 25 percent of its annual budget to charter, open-enrollment and voucher schools that have enrolled children who would normally be enrolled in the city school system.
State subsidy funds follow the pupils, and Youngstown is paying out $28 million per year to cover children enrolled in those schools, Slemons said, calling it “a big chunk of money.”
The school district has had to borrow $25 million in state solvency loans to balance its last two budgets, and its financial forecasts indicate it might have to borrow another $10 million this year.
The budget is essentially balanced but for that large debt, Slemons said.
The district is getting two years to repay each loan, with $7.5 million repaid last year and $12.7 million more to be repaid this year.
It’s true the district can’t cut its way out of debt, Slemons said, adding that it must increase its revenue to do that.
He stopped short of endorsing Tuesday’s vote on a 9.5-mill new tax levy the school board has tried unsuccessfully to get voters to approve three times.
That’s not the committee’s assignment, he said, explaining, “We’re numbers people. We’re not getting into the political arena.”
The school board has said that passage of the levy, which would only run for four years, would generate $5.3 million a year in new revenue, enough to wipe out the debt to the state. Even at that, the district will still need to trim a couple of million more dollars in spending, said Shelley Murray, school board president.
Slemons said the committee will continue its oversight of district finances and next hopes to examine the state’s audit of 2007 finances as soon as that document is available.
As its work progresses, the committee will hopefully be able to make some spending recommendations to the board, he said.
gwin@vindy.com