Youngstown schools can see the way out of red

YOUNGSTOWN — The state fiscal oversight commission overseeing city school district finances has approved a revised fiscal recovery plan that will require the district to cut about $5.1 million in spending next year.

“This is the district’s opportunity to get back to solvency,” said Roger Nehls, chairman of the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission.

The cuts outlined in the recovery plan approved Thursday mirror those proposed by the school district’s administration for fiscal 2009-10, he said.

Those reductions, taken in conjunction with a projected $5.2 million in increased annual property tax revenue over the next four years from a 9.5-mill tax levy approved by district voters last years, enabled the district treasurer to develop a five-year forecast that shows no red ink, Nehls said.

Treasurer William Johnson has said that forecast also shows the district revenue should once again exceed spending by fiscal 2011.

The latest version of the recovery plan shows the elimination of 77 jobs.

That’s on top of about 450 positions eliminated and $26 million in spending cuts made by the district over the last two years as it attempts to return to fiscal solvency.

Read more in Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com