Board to discuss funding for early-college program

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — The chairman of the Youngstown school board’s finance committee wants the district to begin planning immediately on how it will fund the Youngstown Early College program beyond this school year.

“Don’t wait until April or May,” Lock P. Beachum Sr., who also is the school board vice president, told Treasurer William Johnson during a committee meeting Friday.

“It’s an excellent program. I’d like the keep the program,” Beachum said, but he cautioned that finances could be a problem for the district, which is in state-declared fiscal emergency.

YEC is a joint program offered by the city school district and Youngstown State University that allows selected high school students to earn college credit while completing their high school education. It’s been in operation on the YSU campus for the last five years.

The school district has been picking up the annual cost of teacher salaries, books and other materials, an average cost of about $1.3 million.

The school district and YSU agreed to share the costs (51 percent by school district and 49 percent by YSU) of college tuition for the YEC students taking university courses, a cost averaging about $600,000 a year, but they’ve never had to pick up that tab until this year.

The state of Ohio has been providing that funding, but, in light of the state’s own fiscal crisis, no money was allocated for early-college programs in the biennial budget passed last month.

That left YSU and the school district looking for money to cover this year’s tuition expense.

YSU’s board of trustees opted to tap a scholarship reserve fund for its share, and the school district is tapping some unused grant funds, including money from the KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

There are no commitments for the 2010-11 school year at this point.

School district officials need to find that money as soon as possible, Beachum said.

If YSU determines it is unable to carry its share of the program, “I want to start looking at that now,” he said, adding that the district can’t cover the $600,000 out of its general fund.

“We just will not wait until the last minute on this,” he said.

gwin@vindy.com